Guilty Until Proven Innocent
by LanieSullivan
Summary: When Amanda is attacked by an enemy, circumstantial evidence causes Lee to take the blame.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: "Scarecrow and Mrs. King" is copyrighted to Warner Brothers and Shoot the Moon Productions. I retain rights to the plot, but not the characters. This story is meant for enjoyment purposes only. No infringement is intended.

Author's Note: This tale is set about eight months or so after the mystery marriage. I know many of my loyal readers may wonder why I'm starting a new story when I have so many others going, but this is an idea that just wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it. I promise that I am not abandoning my other tales and will keep updating them as well. Thanks to Khell for reading my rough draft of this and providing much-needed feedback.

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**Guilty Until Proven Innocent**

Billy Melrose sat in his office becoming more worried by the minute. It wasn't like his best two agents to not show up to work and not call, especially Amanda King. She was the picture of responsibility. He knew they'd been working security the night before for the Lithuanian ambassador's reception, but the last time they'd checked in, everything was fine and there was nothing threatening on the horizon, so what could have happened? Where were they? Francine entered his office and he perked up. "Anything?"

Francine shook her head. "No answer at either place. I even tried calling Amanda's ex to see if he'd heard from her and he said he hadn't talked to her since last Sunday when he dropped the kids at the house after his weekend visitation with them."

"They were supposed to be here two hours ago," Billy said slamming his meaty fist on his desk. "What the hell is going on?"

"I wish I knew," Francine said worriedly. "If it were just Lee, I wouldn't worry so much because we both know how he can be, but Amanda..."

"Yeah, I know," Billy said. "Did you check with message relay?"

"Twice," Francine answered.

"Check again," He said.

"Billy," Francine protested.

"Here me out, Francine," Her boss replied. "This time, don't just check for messages from Lee or Amanda, but from anyone who knows either of them, her kids, her mother, his uncle, one of his contacts, anyone! Check incoming calls on the IFF line. _Someone _has to know something about where they are." He rose from his desk and added, "I'm going to personally check his place, then hers for any signs of foul play."

"You really think something's happened to them?" Francine queried.

"I don't know, but I'm damn sure going to find out. Now, go!"

"Yes, Sir," Francine said and hurried to follow her boss' orders. When she reached message relay, she found that Mrs West had indeed called on the IFF line to inform them that Amanda would not be coming into work as she was admitted to the hospital after being attacked and that the local police were investigating. "Billy!" she called, but he was already gone. She grabbed her purse and headed out the door to go head to the hospital to see if she could find any clues as to what had happened, knowing that Billy had planned to go to Lee's place first. She also knew that he'd be unable to go to the hospital himself without exposing the agency since Amanda's mother knew who he was. She figured they'd catch up later. Besides, Mrs. West's phone call had only told them what had happened to Amanda, but what about Lee? What had happened to him? Where was he?

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Lee paced relentlessly back and forth across the tiny room, his frustration growing by the minute, his worry for his wife's safety increasing with every second. He should be by her side making sure that she was okay. Instead, he was stuck, trapped, trapped by people who couldn't possibly fathom what she meant to him. As he continued to pace the room, he ran a hand through his hair and let out a deep sigh. They'd see her hurt and hadn't really cared, had been more interested in subduing and capturing him. They hadn't even bothered to check to see if Amanda was okay other than checking her pulse to make sure that she was still alive. If he could just get his hands on the bastards who had done this to her, but no, there was no escape from his prison. He'd tried, tried to plead with his captors to see him free, tried to play on their mercy, tried to explain what she meant to him, all except for the fact that she was his wife.

Why hadn't he just come right out and said it? He heaved a deep sigh. He knew why. They'd been keeping this secret for eight months now, a secret they both now regretted keeping and they'd talked about coming clean. They'd even tried to come up with a plan for doing just that, it always ended the same way, they kept their silence because they just couldn't figure out a good way to drop the bomb and hurt everyone that they cared about.

How did he always manage to get into these messes? Maybe it was time to get out of this business altogether and shit like this would stop happening. Amanda would stop being hurt and maybe the two of them could finally live something of a normal life with their family. His tortured thoughts then turned to the family. What must they be thinking when Amanda hadn't come home yet again?

"Damn, this is a nightmare," he said aloud to nobody there as he halted in his pacing and tightly gripped the bars of the cell in which he was imprisoned. He had to do something. "Hey!" He shouted in the hopes of getting one of his captor's attentions. "Let me the hell out of here! You don't know what you're doing!" He paused for a moment waiting for a response. When none came, he began pacing again, finally throwing himself onto the cot in the corner angrily. "Hang on, Amanda. Just hang on," he whispered.

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"Lee," Dotty heard Amanda mutter in her sleep as she sat worriedly by her daughter's bedside, gripping her hand tightly. She'd only just been allowed to see her a few minutes before. Until then she'd been relegated to the waiting room while the doctors examined her injured daughter and the police hovered around. She still hadn't been allowed to see her even once the doctors had finished as the police were questioning them about her condition. She guessed she could understand because they were trying to gather as much evidence as they could to find Amanda's attacker, but still it had grated on her nerves. Patience was not one of her strong suits. While she was happy she'd finally been allowed into her daughter's room, she was still irked that she didn't know what was going on. All she knew was that her daughter had been attacked, but still no word on her prognosis and she was still unconscious.

"Mrs. West," A voice behind her said. She turned to find the doctor there obviously having finished with the police. "Could I have a word with you?"

"Yes, of course," Dotty said releasing her daughter's hand and following the doctor out of the room. She hated to leave Amanda's side, but she wanted answers and she wanted them yesterday. "Does this mean you're finally going to tell me just what on earth happened?" She folded her arms across her chest and stared down the doctor waiting for his reply.

"Yes, I'm very sorry for the delay, but when a violent crime such as this occurs, it's important to preserve potential evidence so that the police can solve your daughter's case."

"I can appreciate that. I definitely wouldn't want to see whoever did this to her get away with it, but right now I'm more interested in finding out how she is, what her prognosis is-"

"I understand," Mrs. West," the doctor said, cutting her off. He's been around enough hysterical family members that he knew it was best not to let them get too off-topic or they'd never get to the point. "Why don't we got sit down?" He gestured toward the chair on the opposite side of the corridor.

"I don't want to sit down, Doctor..."she paused to read the name badge clipped to his lapel, "...McCammon. I want to know what's going on with my daughter."

"She's suffering from some severe head trauma. It appears that whoever attacked slammed her head against the passenger window of her car. We removed several shards of glass from the back of her head. She's been unconscious since she was brought it."

"Head trauma," Dotty said with a quaver in her voice. That was never a good sign.

"The good news is that her vitals are normal, but with the head injury, she may be unconscious for a good long time, while her body works to repair the damage. It's just going to take time. We've been running some tests to determine how bad the damage is and she's got a concussion..." He paused for a moment and said, "At this point, we don't know when or if she'll wake up and there's not much more that we can do to treat her for it." Dotty nodded and began to turn back toward her daughter's room, but was stopped by the doctor's voice. "Mrs. West, there's more." When Dotty turned back to face him again. "There is another reason that I spent so long with the police."

"More? What could be worse than a coma she m ay never wake up from?" Dotty queried as tears pricked her eyes.

Dr. McCammon hesitated, knowing this wouldn't be easy for his patient's mother to her. "It...Um...It appears..." He paused, a little disconcerted by Dotty's piercing glare. "There is evidence that she was sexually assaulted as well."

"Oh, God," Dotty cried her hands flying to her mouth as the tears that had formed in her eyes began to fall.

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Billy arrived a Lee's apartment building to find Metro PD cars lined up outside. He quickly exited his own vehicle, extracting his badge as he did so. He approached the nearest officer and introduced himself. "I'm William Melrose. I'm with the agency. Two of my agents are missing, one of whom lives here."

"Go on in," the officer said, "You'll want to talk to detective Bledsoe."

"Thank you," Billy replied as he made his way into the building. As he exited the elevator a few minutes later and walked down the hall toward Lee's apartment, his eyes were drawn to the yellow police tape strung across the doorway. His badge still in hand, he displayed it to the officer at the door. "Detective Bledsoe?" he questioned.

The officer looked at Billy's badge and gestured with his thumb to a tall, black woman inside the apartment. Billy nodded, ducked under the tape and entered the apartment where a forensic team was assembled. The living room was a bit of a mess, Lee's tuxedo jacket and bowtie on the floor and the lamp knocked off of the end table next to his couch. Billy cringed slightly at the sight. He approached the detective, his badge still held aloft, "Detective Bledsoe, William Melrose, I'm with the agency, What can you tell me about what happened here.?"

"What's it to you?"She said icily. "This is a simple crime of passion. This is hardly agency business. Now, if I get word that somebody's trying to steal the formula for the latest biological weapon, I'll give you guys a call, so why don't you go back to your nice comfortable office and push some more papers around? That's what you guys are good at, isn't it?"

"I'm afraid it_ is_ agency business," Billy replied. "One of my agents lives here. He and his partner didn't report for work today. I'm afraid that they're missing."

"This guy, Stetson?" She said, her eyes narrowing fixing Billy with an icy glare then asked coolly, "He's one of yours?"

"Yes, Ma'am," Billy answered politely not a bit intimated by her frosty demeanor. He'd seen a lot worse in his thirty years at the agency.

"Then I suggest you get your legal team involved 'cause he's gonna' need them," Detective Bledsoe said hotly.

"I'm afraid I don't understand," Billy said.

"Your boy, Stetson. He's not missing. He's under arrest..." she replied, "...for the assault and rape of Amanda King."


	2. Chapter 2

**Eight Hours Earlier**

Lee opened the passenger door of his 'vette to help his wife out. The door had barely been shut when he pulled her into his arms and kissed her passionately, delighted when she eagerly returned his kisses. When they broke apart breathlessly, he said, "Come upstairs with me."

"Lee, you know I can't," she said with a glance at the Wagoneer parked behind his 'vette."I have to be home for the boys in the morning."

"Please, Amanda," Lee pleaded. It's been two weeks. You can't tell me you haven't been missing me as much as I've been missing you."

"I have," she acknowledged. "You know I have." When Lee kissed her again passionately, she found herself torn, as she had been many times in the past eight months, between her fierce desire for her husband and her desire to be a good mother. "Okay," she said as she pulled back from him breathlessly, "For a little while."

Moments later, they were stumbling into his apartment, kissing, groping and tugging at each other's formalwear, Lee's tuxedo jacket and bowtie soon landing on the floor. Not letting go of each other for a moment, as they worked their way into the living room, they stumbled against the end table knocking the lamp and phone on it to the floor. Lee flipped Amanda around to so that she was pressed against the back of the couch. She worked the buttons on his shirt loose and clamped her mouth down hard on one of his nipples while her hands slide downward to free him from his pants. "Oh, God," he cried out and clasped her head to him for just a moment until he felt her nimble fingers gripping his shaft, stroking him firmly. He then tugged on her head, captured her lips in another explosive kiss as he slid his free hand under her evening gown, yanking at her panties, with a loud ripping sound. He pulled them away from her body and began to stroke her, delighted to find her already wet for him. He pulled back from their kiss to ravage the tender skin at her neck.

"Lee," Amanda panted through her heavy breathing. "Don't...tease I need you...inside...now." Grasping her hips tightly, Lee plunged into his wife's warmth hard, groaning as he did so, "Yes," Amanda hissed as she clutched at his neck, pleasure exploding within her at the feeling of her husband's hard length inside her after two weeks without him.

""Manda," he groaned as he clamped his mouth down on her neck, suckling her tender skin hard, not caring that it would leave a mark behind. After seeing all the men who'd hit on her tonight at the party, thinking she was a free agent, he was damn tired of people not knowing that she belonged to him. He wanted to mark her as his to keep the men from flocking around her again. He gripped her hips tighter and pumped into her as deep and as hard as he could groaning louder as he felt her tight muscles contracting around him with her

Amanda screamed loudly as an intense climax gripped her, unconsciously digging her nails into her husband's neck as she shook with the force of her release.

"Yes, God, Yes," Lee cried out as he emptied himself into her, his own body shaking as he continued to drive into her until he was spent. He breathing heavy, his heart pounding, he said, "I...I'm sorry, Amanda."

"For what," she said through her own ragged breathing.

"I...I wanted so much to make love to you tonight, instead I..." he pulled out of her and turned away, "Instead I...I attacked you like a wild animal."

"Lee, you didn't hear me complaining, did you? Besides, just because it was a little rough, that doesn't mean it wasn't still making love. We still love each other, right?" She ran her hands up his back and urged him to turn to face her. She then kissed him tenderly and said, "Right?"

He smiled and said, "Yes." He kissed her softly and said, "Stay tonight. Let me make love to you the right way, romance you..."

"Lee, I can't. The boys have ball game tomorrow and I have to be there to make sure they get their breakfast before they go, make sure they get all their stuff together..."

"Amanda, please."

"I'm sorry, Lee, but I can't. I love you, but I can't." She walked toward the door to pick up her discarded coat and purse and was about to leave when Lee caught up to her in the hallway outside his door. "Dammit, Amanda! Wait! Why can't we ever have a whole night together?"

"Lee, stop it," Amanda said wrenching her arm from his grasp. "I have to go!'

"No!" Lee shouted. "I'm tired of all this! I'm so damn tired of it! Every time I want you to stay, you use the kids as an excuse to leave! I'm damn tired of it!"

"I'm tired of it too, but what are we going to do about it? Every time we try to talk about it, it ends up just like this and we're no closer to a solution than we were eight months ago!'

"Hey, shut the hell up," an angry voice shouted from down the hall as one of Lee's neighbors poked his head out the door. "It's 2AM, for God's sake!'

"Oh, go back to bed, " Lee shouted at his neighbor, and then tried to stop Amanda from leaving again and said, "Don't you love me at all?"

"That's it!" I'm calling the cops!' The neighbors shouted."

"Go on! Call the cops! See if I care!" Lee fired back. "Just mind your own dam business!"

"Lee, how can you ask me something like that? You know that I love you," she said tears in her eyes at his accusation.

"Then stay," He pleaded.

"No," she said and turned again towered the elevator.

"Please," Lee said gripping her arm, turning her to face him, and kissing her hard.

Amanda wriggled out of his grasp and said, "Look, you got what you wanted tonight..."

"Only part of what I wanted," Lee said.

"I'm sorry, I have to go," Amanda said and stepped into the elevator before he could stop her again.

As she stepped outside and was digging in her purse for her car keys, two shadows, appeared behind her. She turned, but wasn't quite fast enough as two sets of arms gripped her tightly and a gruff voice said, "You're coming with us."

"Like hell, I am," she said as she stomped on the foot of one of her assailants and turned to kick as the other one, but before she could, a third man grabbed her by the arms. She screamed loudly.

Lee was about to re-enter his apartment when he heard a blood-curdling scream. "Amanda," he shouted as he sprinted for the stairwell, not wanting to waste time with the elevator. "Amanda!" He cried again as he made it outside, just in time to see a big goon slam his wife head into her car and heard the sickening sound of her skull crashing against it combined with the sound of shattering glass. "Hey, get the hell away from her!" He shouted, wishing his gun was not inside the apartment, but when he'd heard her scream, he hadn't thought, he'd just wanted to get to her. As the thugs approached him, he prepared himself for a fight until the three of them dispersed at the sound of approaching sirens, jumping into a black van and hightailing it out of there.

"Amanda," Lee said rushing to his wife's side. "Oh, God, Amanda," he said in horror as he saw the blood gushing from the back of her head. "Hang on, Amanda, hang on, Honey." He dashed to his car to call an ambulance, sure that the sirens he heard were from his neighbor calling the cops. Finishing his call, he knelt by his wife's side.

Amanda dazed and in pain, looked up at her husband's face and said, "I'm sorry," just before his face disappeared as she lost consciousness.

"Amanda!' Lee shouted. "Amanda, come on," he said as he shook her then felt himself being abruptly yanked away from her, his arms pinned behind his back."Hey, what the hell?" he protested before hearing the familiar words, "you have the right to remain silent..."


	3. Chapter 3

**Present Time-Saturday Morning-10:00AM**

Dotty stared at the doctor, a stunned look on her face, "Oh, my poor baby," she said unable to control the tears sliding down her face at the thought of her daughter being raped.

"I'm sorry to have to give you that kind of news," Dr. McCammon said sympathetically. "But it's best that you know what's going on because the police want to talk to you as well."

"Whatever for," she questioned.

"I think it's best if I let them explain it to you," he answered and gestured toward the nurse's station where two uniformed DC police officers were standing.

Dotty nodded and approached the waiting officers. "You wanted to speak with me?"She questioned as she tried to hold her emotions in check.

"We'll try to be brief, Mrs. West," One of the officers said. "We just have a few questions for you."

"Well, I will have you know that I have some questions too. For starters, I want to know what it is that you're doing to find the monster that did this to my daughter."

The two officers looked at each other as if to question why no one had told her. "Mrs. West, we already have a suspect in custody. We arrested him at the scene, but here's the thing. We understand that you know the suspect, at least when we questioned him, he said you did. What do you know about this guy, Lee Stetson?"

"Lee?" Dotty said incredulously. "No, that's...that's not possible. You...you can't possibly believe that he would...No, it's ridiculous. He loves my daughter. He'd never hurt her." Her thoughts were whirling. How could they possibly think that Lee would have forced himself on Amanda. It just couldn't be. Why would he when she'd known for months that Amanda was willingly sleeping with him ever since bits of Lee's clothing began turning up in her laundry. "No, I don't believe it. I'll never believe it. You've got the wrong man." The fact that he was arrested explained why he wasn't here by Amanda's side the way he was when she was shot eight months ago. He probably wanted to be and couldn't due to being arrested and for a crime he didn't commit. How awful for Lee. The woman he loved was attacked and he was being accused of it. "I mean, it's...it's impossible."

The officer sighed and said, "Whether you believe it or not, the evidence doesn't look good in favor of his innocence. What do you know about this guy?"

"I know without a doubt that he's completely in love with Amanda. They've been seeing each other for about a year or so now," Dotty said. "My grandchildren love him. He's been there for them more than their own father has. He's been at the house many times for dinner. I know that he's a wonderful man and he's been very good for my daughter. I keep hoping one day that I'll hear the news that they're getting married."

"That'll be the day," the second officer muttered before being nudged by his partner.

"Look, this guy's not all he appears to be. He's got kind of a bad reputation with the ladies," the first officer said to her. "A real love 'em and leave 'em type. Every one of his co-workers that we've talked to about him at IFF says that once he gets what he wants from a woman, he moves on to the next one. You say he's been seeing your daughter for a year now?"

"Yes, I mean, the man you're talking about, it just can't be the same man that I know. He's been nothing but devoted to Amanda and to her children and I know for a fact that he hasn't moved on. He was at our house for dinner just the night before last. He played Monopoly with the children. As for getting what he wants and moving on, that can't be true either because I know that Amanda's spent numerous weekends with him."

"What do you know about your daughter's whereabouts last night?"

"She...um...she said she had some work event to go to, a premier party or film wrap party or something like that. I can never keep up with her work events. You know how film people can be." The two officers exchanged looks again. "What? Why do you keep looking at each other as if you know something that I don't?"

"We've got all we need for now, Mrs. West. Thank you. That will be all."

"No, that will _not_ be all," Dotty said, her temper flaring as she gestured wildly toward her daughter's hospital room. "My daughter's lying in that room comatose and they tell me that she may or may not wake up. She could die! Do you understand that? Now, you _will_ tell me what's going on!"

"Mrs. West, I'm afraid that we can't discuss anymore while the investigation is still ongoing," the officer said apologetically.

"Well, I just don't accept that! I am her mother and I have a right to know what's going on!' She shouted her voice rising to nearly a shriek.

"Mrs. West," a female voice said from behind her.

Dotty turned to find a somewhat familiar-looking blonde standing there. "I know you, don't I?"

"Yes, Mrs. West, Francine Desmond, I work with Amanda at IFF," Francine answered, hoping that she wouldn't' remember that Amanda had once introduced her as the owner of a chimpanzee.

"Oh, then you must know Lee as well," Dotty cried in delight. "Then maybe you can explain to these officers that it's absolutely ridiculous to think that he would have anything to do with hurting Amanda."

"Listen, Mrs. West," Francine said. "Why don't you go sit with Amanda and I'll talk to these officers, okay?"

"Bless you, Miss Desmond," Dotty said, grateful that someone was on her side as she rushed off to be with her injured daughter.

As soon as she was out of sight, she whipped out her ID and said, "I'm with the agency. Amanda King is one of ours. What can you tell me?"

When the tow Metro cops told her what had happened, she laughed sardonically and said, "I have to agree with Mrs. West. You've got the wrong man."

"Come on; are you familiar with the guy's reputation?"

"As a matter of fact, I am. In fact, I was once a part of it and while Lee Stetson may be called a playboy, a cad, even, one thing that he's not is a rapist."

"But the evidence speaks for-"

"I don't care what kind of so-called evidence you've got," Francine snapped stopping the cop in his track. "I know Lee Stetson...in the biblical sense and I know that with his looks and his charisma, he'd never in a million years have to resort to forcing himself on a woman and especially not Amanda King. If that was what he wanted, I could name at least a dozen ladies in the steno pool at the office who'd be only too happy to oblige." When both bops looked at her curiously, she said, "Oh, yeah, he's one of ours too and I can tell you from experience that he would do anything in the world to protect Amanda King from being hurt. He's put his job and his life on the line for her more times that I can count in the last four years, not to mention dragging me into it a few times."

"I think you should talk to the lead on this, Detective Bledsoe," the officer said.

"Oh, believe me, I will," Francine said before turning to the nurse's station, flashing her badge again and asking for an update on Amanda's condition.

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Billy gaped at the female detective in utter shock at her words. "I'm sorry, there must be some mistake," Billy said. "I've known Lee Stetson for years and I know Amanda King. She's one of ours too. In fact, they're partners."

"Is he in the habit of attacking his partners?"

"Never," Billy said with a shake of his. "Just the opposite. He's the kind of agent who'll go out of his way and put his own life at risk rather than risk hers. I don't believe he'd ever hurt her. On the contrary, in seeing them together, I believe he's been in love with her for a very long time."

"That makes him even more dangerous to her," Detective Bledsoe said with a snort. "I don't know why I expected any different. You spooks always look after your own, don't you? You being his superior, I bet you're always covering his ass, aren't you?" When Billy didn't reply, she continued, "I don't care how much he may protect her when they're out chasing terrorists; don't care if he's thrown himself on top of a grenade for her. The evidence I've got here is pretty damned conclusive."

"What kind of evidence?"

"That is none of your business. This is MY case and you are going to keep your nose out of it. I'm not letting you let this guy walk! You say you think he was in love with her. That's just another nail in his coffin. I've seen guys like him before. He couldn't get what he wanted from her so he took it. Your boy raped his partner and I'm going to make damn sure he fries for it. Now, get the hell out of my crime scene before I call _your _superior!"


	4. Chapter 4

Lee lay on his cot uncomfortably, trying to shake off the pounding in his head. Whether it was due to his whirling thoughts or the remnants of the champagne he'd drunk the night before, he wasn't sure. He just wanted the pain to stop. The pain in his head, however, was nothing compared to the pain in his heart as he worry for his wife escalated. The Metro cops who'd arrested him had questioned him endlessly, but being the trained agent that he was, he'd given them nothing, fully exercising his right to remain silent. He knew his temper had a way of getting the better of him and had decided not to take any chances other than to provide the requested information during his booking, name, address, birth date, etc.

He sat up, swung his long legs over the side of the bed, and ran a hand through his hair. This action drew his attention to his bare left hand where his wedding ring should be. He'd been around some of the married guys at the agency and had noticed on some assignments where they'd had to pretend not to be married, the ones that had been married for any length of time, had developed a tan line their ring fingers. He, however, while married for eight months hadn't, even though he was out in the field often enough that he should have. He just hadn't worn his ring often enough for that to happen and on the few occasions that he had, it was either on a cover assignment when he was only pretending to be Amanda's husband, or it had been in some weekend hideaway where they could be Mr. and Mrs. Stetson for real, but only for a short time.

His eyes travelled up his hand an glanced and the black smudges there, the residue of the ink pad used to fingerprint him in the wee hours of the morning. He snorted as he realized how connected the lack of a tan line and the ink stain were. If he had one, he wouldn't now have the other. Had had been wearing his ring like he should have, had this stupid mystery marriage never been conceived of, had he been willing to be her husband in public, instead of being shaken with fear at the possibilities, he'd never be in this cell. After all, how could they have accused him of rape, if it were known that she was his wife? They'd have known that she was more than willing.

He cringed as he thought of their encounter in his apartment and he knew how they could see it. He'd even said himself that he'd practically attacked her, the loneliness he'd been feeling combined with the never-ending intense desire he felt for his wife, fueled by copious amounts of champagne had led him to not holding back once she'd begun touching him, her hands and her mouth driving him crazy and spurring him on. Then when she'd cried out that she needed him inside her right then and there, he'd been only too happy to comply, his need for her overriding any common sense. He cringed again as he thought about how fast it had been over. Two weeks without her and all his thoughts of taking his time to show her how much he'd missed her had flown out the window when she'd pleaded for him.

He shook his head, wincing slightly at the pain that move brought with it, not only from his raging headache, but from the pulling at the scratches at the back of his neck where his wife had dug her nails into his skin while her body had convulsed against his and she screamed out his name in the throes of passion. If those cops only knew what she was really like in private, they'd never believe that she wasn't a willing participant in their lovemaking. He stood and began pacing again and thought, _more than willing. _He'd never imagined before making love to her for the first time that she'd be such a firecracker in the bedroom. He knew that she was a mother long before he'd met her, but in his mind, he'd liked to think of her as only having had sex twice before him. He knew that was a ridiculous thought because she'd been married to Joe King for ten years and they'd been married for only eight months now and had made love more than that. Hell, they'd made love more that twice on their wedding night, until their time together had been abruptly cut short.

He sighed again as this situation recalled that one, how he'd watched her fight for her life, how when her heart had stopped, he'd thought his would too until he breathed a sigh of immense relief when they'd gotten her breathing again. He shook his head again and thought that at least then, he'd been there for her, been by her side in the hospital as he couldn't be now. He'd been able to track down the asshole who'd hurt her. This time he couldn't. He'd like nothing better right now than to be out there tracking down the goons who'd attacked her and put the same kind of hurt on them that they'd put on her.

Lee wracked his brain, trying to recall the details of the night before. Three guys, most likely hired muscle of some kind, since they didn't seem too bright from his brief encounter with them. The big bruiser who'd cracked Amanda's head against her car had a tattoo on his left arm, but he didn't know of what. It had been too dark to make it out clearly. He'd just remembered seeing the large ink stain on the guy's meaty forearm when he'd had his hands on Amanda. The other two were about his own height and build. One of them had appeared to be limping slightly as they'd run away. Was that due to some past injury or had Amanda gotten in a good lick or two before they'd swarmed her? He smiled slightly as he recalled the strappy black sandals she'd worn with her evening gown to the party. He could totally picture her spiking the guy's instep with one of those wicked heels. "That's my girl," He said aloud but his smile was short-lived, as thinking of Amanda had only brought back the pain and the worry he felt.

"Focus, Scarecrow, focus," he chided himself. The three had run across the street and into a nondescript black van and it had been way too dark for him to capture the plate number even if he'd been paying enough attention to do so. His mind had been so focused on getting to Amanda to make sure that she was all right, that he hadn't thought a bit about gathering more evidence of who her attackers were. His only thought in that moment was to make sure that she stayed breathing, knowing that he himself would die without her.

As he paced the confines of his cell, he kept mentally kicking himself for not capturing more details of the scene when he'd rushed out there. What the hell kind of agent was he? He was trained to notice things, tiny little details that someone else might overlook. He shifted gears and tried to focus on the attack itself. What were these guys after and why had they gone after Amanda and not him? Had they been after just her? Had they been following her? Had they been staking out his place waiting for her to be alone? Had they been there while they were at the party and followed them from there? His mind flashed back to earlier in the day when they'd been setting up security for the party and he seemed to recall a similar black van when they'd been checking people in and out of the building to make sure there were no threats against that ambassador looming, cleaning crews early in the day, then later, caterers, the orchestra... What was he missing?

"Come on, think!" he said aloud. What else did you need to set up for a party? His mind became distracted again as he reflected back on the one dance he and Amanda and gotten to share during the party; A dance that they really shouldn't have had since they were working, but he'd wanted to have just a little time with her was not work-related. He recalled how he'd taken her hand in his to lead her to the dance floor, but had paused for a moment as a flowery centerpiece had caught his eye. He'd then plucked a flower from it and had tucked it into her thick hair, had smiled at how she'd smiled at the all-too-brief contact before he'd led her out to the floor and had taken her in his arms. "That's it!' The florists!" He rushed to the door of his cell and shouted through the bars. "Hey!' trying to get someone's attention. When no response came, he tried again louder, "HEY! Come on, damn it! I've got something I need to tell somebody!"

When still no response came, he violently kicked at the bars of his cell, and then shouted, "OW!" _Smooth, Stetson, real smooth_, he thought.

He then heard the click of heels on the concrete floor behind him and turned back to peer through the bars again finding himself face to face with a tall, black woman with a disdainful look on her face, "So, have you finally decided to talk?" she said as she fixed him with an icy glare.


	5. Chapter 5

**Saturday, 12:00PM**

After two hours of sitting holding her hand, praying that she'd wake up, Dotty left her daughter's hospital room in search of a phone. She nodded in passing to a man being pushed in a wheelchair bearing scars on his face and a patch on his eye. _That poor man, _Dotty couldn't help thinking, wondering what had put him in such a state, though she couldn't help the chill that ran up her spine when she caught a glimpse to the man who was pushing the wheelchair. He was like one of those guys you see in those action movies that her grandsons adored, the kind of man who could break another man in half with his bare hands. Her eyes were temporarily drawn to the large dragon tattoo on his thick forearm, colored a bright green with red eyes.

"What, Lady?" The big man said as he paused and stared at her.

"Oh, I'm sorry for staring. I...I...was just...um...admiring your tattoo. It's very distinctive." At the man's piercing glare, she hurried off to find a phone.

When she found one, she quickly punched in the number for her ex-son-in-law's home, hoping to finally get in touch with him this time. When he answered, she breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Oh, Joe, thank God you're there. I've been trying to reach you since 3AM."

Noting the panic in his ex-mother-in-law's voice he said, "Sorry, Dotty. Carrie and I were at a party late last night at the plaza and we ended up spending the night there. Dotty, what is it? What's going on? Amanda's office called me in a panic when Amanda didn't show up for work today."

"It's bad, Joe," Dotty said and then proceeded to explain what had happened.

"Oh my God," Joe said. "What can I do? Do you need me to come to the hospital?"

"No," Dotty answered with a shake of her head. "There's nothing that you could do for her, even if you did, but you can do something for me."

"Anything," Joe replied.

"The boys had a game that started an hour ago. When I couldn't get a hold of you, I had Buck look after them and make sure they got to the ballpark. Until I knew what was going on with Amanda, I didn't want to disrupt their lives. I didn't want them worrying needlessly. Can you please pick them up when they're game is over and take them home with you?"

"Of course," Joe answered, but the worry was evident in his voice and he had the sense that Dotty was telling him everything.

"Listen, Joe, the boys don't know yet that she was attacked. I insisted that Buck not tell them and I don't want them to know just yet how bad off their mother is."

"I understand," Joe said. "What about Lee? What's he doing about it?"

"He..." Dotty hedged, not sure if she should tell him, but then thought it was best if he knew everything. After all, he knew already that Lee was her boyfriend. "Oh, it's the most awful thing. The police are accusing him of...of committing this horrible crime against her. They say they have evidence, but of, course, they won't tell me what this so-called evidence is. Gave me some ridiculous nonsense about the ongoing investigation. This is my daughter, for God's sake and they're treating me like...like..."

"Dotty, calm down. I'll do everything I can to help. Maybe I can even intercede on Lee's behalf a little."

"What can you do?" Dotty said warily, but happy that he was willing to help even though he and Amanda had both remarried.

"Well, even a man caught red-handed has a right to an attorney," Joe said. "And I think we both know that Lee would never hurt Amanda."

Dotty couldn't help smiling at Joe's offer to help Lee and said, "Thank you, Joe. I...uh...I should get back to Amanda. Please, don't let the boys know what's going on yet, not until we know more about Amanda's condition and if she's going to recover. If you could see her...what was done to her...I...I don't want my grandchildren to see their mother like that."

"I get it. I'll pick up the boys when their game is done and in the meantime, I think I may pay a visit to the jail."

"Thank you, Joe," she said gratefully.

While Dotty was making her phone call, the wheel-chaired man and his companion continued down the hall. "What the hell was that all about?" the man in the chair snapped hotly.

"I didn't like the way that old broad was looking at me," The larger man replied.

"Well, you've got to stop crap like that," The other replied. "You could have given yourself away. That's her mother, you know." After all the research he'd done on Amanda King in the past and the surreptitious surveillance he'd done on her in the past year, he knew everything there was to know about Amanda, including about her secret rendezvous with her partner, the partner who had helped to put him in this chair permanently. His beef wasn't really with her partner, though it did give him a small measure of satisfaction last night that he'd been arrested for the attack on her. He hadn't planned for that. That was just a nice bonus.

As they entered, Amanda King's room, he smiled at seeing the state she was in, taking in the site of the monitors, the sound of them as they beeped while keeping track of her heartbeat and respiration. He nodded to his companion, who halted the wheelchair, reached for the chart in the slot outside the door, and handed it to him. As he flipped through the pages, his smile grew and he chuckled to himself. "Head trauma, coma. signs of sexual assault..." he read. He then handed the chart back to his companion and said, "You know, Mack, I think our work here is done. You did a good enough job on her last night. According to her chart, they're doubtful that she'll wake up."

As he replaced the chart and then returned to his boss, He said in confusion, "But I thought you wanted us to come here to finish the job, Mr. Williamson."

"Oh, no, Mack," Jake Williamson replied as he reached for the wheels of his chair and turned himself around to face his lackey. "I never wanted Amanda King dead. That was never the plan." He cast a backward glance toward the unconscious woman before turning back to Mack. "No, Mack, I just wanted her to suffer, the way she's made me suffer after putting me in this chair for the rest of my life. I'd say we've achieved that and more, not to mention, her partner being arrested for it. That was something that couldn't have worked out better if I'd planned it." He then nodded to his companion toward the door.

Mack sighed, but did as he was told, stepping behind his employer to push him out of the room, nearly running into Dotty, who was returning after making her phone call.

"Who are you," Dotty said startled again by the big man. "And what are you doing in my daughter's room?"

"Just paying my respects, Ma'am," Williamson said. He cast another backward glance at Amanda's unconscious form and then turned back to her mother, smiled and said, "Amanda and I are old friends." He then nodded to Mack, and the two of them were on their way.


	6. Chapter 6

**Saturday, 12:00PM**

Lee sat in the interrogation room of the police station fidgeting with the cuffs that bound his wrists as stewed at having been left here alone for an hour. That detective Bledsoe had had him brought here then had left. He had to give her credit. It was brilliant strategy. He'd done the same a time or two with suspects to allow them to stew in their own juices for a while before getting to the interrogation. It was a classic. He sighed and rose from his seat, making his way toward the two-way mirror, wondering if she was on the other side of it watching him. He'd just met her as his only interactions so far had been with the beat cops and the ones who'd booked him, but he could already tell that she was a tough cookie. He could just picture her standing there staring at him with a gleeful expression on her face as he became more agitated.

He glanced at his reflection in the mirror and cringed. Orange was not his color at all. He tugged at the top of the jumpsuit and examined the mark his wife had left behind, the slight bruise that had formed around his left nipple, her teeth marks there. He clumsily closed it again with his cuffed hands. He hadn't seen her yet, but he imagined that Amanda had a matching bruise on her neck. He could see the detective's side of things. To her, it probably didn't look like anything, but rape, but he had to convince her that it wasn't. He was tired of keeping his silence.

He flung himself back into the chair and wondered if it would do any good, his protests to the beat cops last night when they'd arrest him, hadn't. He'd shouted at them that they were making a mistake, begged them to make sure Amanda was okay, argued with them that he'd never hurt her, even going so far as to plead with them to call her mother if they needed a witness in his defense because she knew him and knew how much he loved her. All the way to the police station, he'd argued to no avail and when by the time they'd brought him into this room last night, he was done arguing and had just decided to clam up, figuring that anything else he might say would be used against him as in the Miranda rights they'd read him.

He sat there and chuckled sardonically at the irony of this whole thing. How many times had he read those rights to others? How many bad guys had he put away? He sighed that he was now on the other side of it and was being judged as guilty. Wasn't it supposed to be the other way around, hat you were presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law? The more he thought about it the angrier he became. He rose again and stomped back to the mirror, pounded both fists against it and said, "HEY! I know you're there! Get your ass in here! I'm tired of this bullshit!" No response, but he hadn't really expected one.

He was just sitting back down when he heard the door open behind him and the click of heels. He stared straight ahead until the door slammed behind him and the Detective Bledsoe appeared in front of him, her arms laden with files that she slammed down on the table between them. "Well, it's about damn time!" Lee said, folding his arms across his chest.

"Exactly, what I was thinking," she replied coolly. "Are you ready to talk now?"

"Yeah, to my lawyer," Lee snapped suddenly thinking with the way she was looking at him, telling her the truth might not be such a good idea.

Detective Bledsoe snorted and said, "Well, I want some answers!"

"I don't have to give you any!" Lee fired back. "As your flunkies out there reminded me last night, I have the right to remain silent and I have the right to an attorney and I'm exercising those rights. I know my rights! God knows, I've read them enough times! You're not getting word one from me until I get my phone call!"

"That won't be necessary," a familiar booming voice said behind him.

Lee turned and saw Billy and Francine entering the room and breathed a sigh of relief. "Billy, thank God."

"Get the hell out of here," Detective Bledsoe snapped at Billy. "I already told you I'm not letting you take over my case. This is not agency business."

"One of our agents was attacked, so I'm afraid it is agency business and we've filed the proper paperwork to take over this case," Billy replied calmly.

"Well, it hasn't been approved yet and until it has been, you have no right to be here."

"That's where you're wrong," Billy said with a smile. "Like the man said, He has a right to an attorney and I just happen to have a law degree."

The detective blanched had Billy getting one up on her and said, "And just who the hell is she?"

"My assistant," Billy said with a nod to Francine as he took the seat next to Lee. "Now, acting as his attorney, I demand to know what evidence you've got against him."

Francine stood silently clutching a file in her own hands and gave Lee an encouraging, I'm-here-for-you smile.

"You wanna' talk evidence? How's this for starters?" the detective began still glaring at Billy, irked by his presence in the room, usurping her plan to intimidate her suspect. She flipped a photo out of her file in front of Billy and Lee. Ignoring Billy, she spoke only to Lee, "Amanda King's condition when she was found, She's got bruises on her hips which just happen to have your prints all over them. She flung another photo at them and continued, "A bruise on her neck with a bite mark around it which matches your dental records. Then there's this," she said as she added another photo to the pile. "Those are some pretty deep scratches on the back of your neck there and coincidentally, the skin you're missing there just happens to match the skin pulled from under her fingernails." She extracted another photo, "Oh and this one's a beauty too. The bruise on your chest with her teeth marks surrounding it." Lee cringed and cast a worried glance a Billy as the evidence against him was presented. "Then there's the semen sample taken from her that coincidentally matches the one taken from the pants you were wearing when you were arrested and another one we took from the back of your couch. As she said this, she pulled out a sheaf of papers from another folder and said, "These are the lab reports confirming it."

"Look. I can explain all that," Lee said.

"There's only one explanation," the brusque detective said. "Your neighbor heard her screaming coming from your apartment, followed by you arguing with her as you chased after her when she tried to escape, heard her screaming again outside and the officers on duty saw you standing over her unconscious body, shaking her, just before they arrested you, not to mention the condition of your apartment where a struggle clearly took place." She paused for dramatic effect for a beat and said, "I know all about you and your reputation. She was the one woman you couldn't get to give you what you wanted, so you took it in the most violent way possible."

"Look, that's not what happened," Lee protested.

Billy fixed the detective with a cool glance and said, "I'm sorry, Detective Bledsoe, I have to stand by what I told you earlier. I know this man and I know Amanda King and I know that he would never do anything to hurt her."

Bledsoe looked at him incredulously and said. "What more proof do you want that your boy here is a rapist?"

"Your "proof" is circumstantial at best," Francine interjected, but couldn't help the niggle of doubt that crept in at having seen the photos of Amanda's condition. While she'd long ago stopped believing the lies that Amanda had told her about dumping Lee, especially now with the evidence in her hand that their relationship was serious, she still found it hard to fathom that Amanda would have been that open during sex. However, maybe she was just once again underestimating her. Maybe being with Lee had changed her, the same way that being with her had changed him.

"Circumstantial?" Bledsoe questioned.

Lee decided to put a stop to this and said, "Look, I'm not denying that Amanda and I had sex last night or that we had a fight afterward, but I assure you, I did not rape her. She wanted it every bit as much as I did."

"That's what they all say," the detective snorted. "She wanted it or she was asking for it." She switched tactics and said, "I get it. The beat cops said you had liquor on your breath, so maybe you didn't realize what you were doing and you took it too far. Maybe your lawyer here can use that in your defense, but it doesn't change the facts! Whatever the circumstances are, you raped your partner!"

"Stop," Francine said. While she was beginning to have doubts, Lee was still her friend and she would back him up to the end. "Here's a little fact that might change your mind!' She pulled out a document from the file she held and slammed it down in front of the detective. "She's not just his partner. She's his wife."


	7. Chapter 7

There was a dead silence in the room as the detective examined the document in front of her, her eyes repeatedly fixing on the two signatures at the bottom of the marriage certificate that Francine had unceremoniously used to slap her in the face. She then slammed it back down on the table in front of Lee, "You care to explain this?"

"I think it speaks for itself," Lee said as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Even though he wasn't looking at her, he was painfully aware that Francine's steel-blue eyes were boring into him while Billy's were looking at him knowingly, rather than in shock like Francine. Billy always was the most perceptive at the agency, even knowing exactly when he'd begun thinking of proposing to Amanda and calling him out on it, attempting to get him to move on to greener pastures, knowing that he'd soon be taking on a ready-made family.

After Lee's non-answer got her even more riled, Detective Bledsoe fixed Francine with an icy glare which was only returned by the blonde agent who was determined to show this woman that she didn't intimidate easily. Lee gaped at the familiar document, then looked sheepishly first at Billy, then Francine, like a child who'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. His sheepish look soon turned to one of curiosity, "How?" he said to Francine.

"Please," Francine said with a snort. "It wasn't that hard. Marriage licenses are a matter of public record."

"But-but what would even make you think to look for something like that?" Lee asked.

"To be honest, I didn't," Francine replied with a noncommittal shrug as if she didn't care that finding that document and realizing that Lee had made a lifetime commitment to Amanda, had shaken her to her core. "Billy and I were just looking for any evidence of the personal relationship that you and Amanda worked so hard to hide that might give us something to defend you with."

It was the detective's turn to snort, her gaze still focused on Francine, "You, a woman, are defending a man with his degenerate lifestyle?"

"Yes," Francine said. "Having once been part of that _degenerate _lifestyle," Francine said feeling mildly insulted by her use of that word, "...I know that while he once had a taste for playing the field, and for meaningless casual encounters, I know one thing with certainty, he was never a rapist. Never!"

Detective Bledsoe never wavered in her steely gaze at Francine and said, "Are you trying to convince me or yourself?" When Francine hedged, she continued. "Come on, Lady, I saw the look on your face when you saw these," she said as she picked of the photos of the physical damage done to Amanda and waved them in Francine's face. "Go on! Take a good look at these and tell me you don't still think it's possible!"

"I admit that the physical evidence doesn't look good in favor of his innocence, but this does," Francine replied, picking up the marriage certificate and holding it up for the detective to see. "If a man like Lee Stetson, with his sordid past, is finally willing to take the plunge and commit himself to just one woman, that's saying something. The Lee Stetson I knew just five years ago would never have allowed himself to be tied down to anyone! He was the very definition of a lone wolf, so this..." she waved the document in the detective's face. "...this just proves that he's no longer that lone wolf. That he's changed."

"A leopard doesn't change its spots," Bledsoe retorted. Francine's face fell slightly as she cringed at hearing almost the identical words she'd used on Lee a few months ago when he was assigned to "get next to" Elisa Danton, with whom he'd had the wildest encounters of his life. She felt a little guilty for those words now as she hadn't known at the time that he'd already committed to a lifetime with Amanda. How differently that conversation might have gone if she'd known the truth. She opened her mouth to speak, but Billy beat her to it.

"You've just been presented with the fact that she's his wife," Billy interjected calmly as he tried to be the voice of reason. He nodded to Francine who dropped the marriage certificate to the table and once again opened the file in her free hand, pulled out documents, laying them on the table as well. "We also have evidence of just when they took their honeymoon, where they spent their wedding night, and how the hotel staff in Marion confirmed that they were late checking out of their room. Being a married man, myself, I'd say that's typical newlywed behavior, so why on earth would you think that he'd need to force himself on his wife?" Billy glanced at Lee with a supportive nod, and then looked back to the detective awaiting her answer.

"What? You think that a man can't rape his wife; Or that just because she _is_ his wife that he's entitled to take what he wants, when he wants?" She fired back. "I think you've been chasing terrorists too long. You don't see the violent crime in this city that I do, how many domestic disputes I've been called out on where husbands have a committed all kinds of heinous crimes against their wives. What makes this any different?"

Lee rose from his seat and said, "What is it going to take to convince you that I didn't do this? I already told you that there was no rape! I would never to that to her! I wouldn't need to! She's been perfectly willing all on her own for more than a year and even more so since we got married! Look, I admit that last night, it got a little rough because we'd both been drinking and because we'd spent two weeks apart. Since no one knew until now that we were married, we don't get the time together and a normal husband and wife do! I'm also perfectly willing to admit that we had a argument because I wanted her to stay when she wanted to go home to her kids and that that argument got a little out of hand, but I'm not going to let you accuse me of any kind of crime just for making love to my wife!"

"Making love," the detective said incredulously with a sardonic laugh. "Did you look at your handiwork here?" she said shoving the photos in her hands under his nose. "You see what you did to her?"

"Oh, I know _exactly_ what I did to her," He said as he snatched the photos from her hands, balled them up and tossed them back in her face, though he didn't quite make the impact he wanted due to his cuffed hands. He continued with his words instead to make his point, "And let me tell you something, she loved _every_..._single_ second of it!" Lee fired back punctuating each word for emphasis. "She not only wanted it, but she practically begged for it! You don't know Amanda the way that I do! No one does! The things that I've learned about her in the last year alone, the things she enjoys, would shock the hell out of just about everyone who knows her!"

"Then explain to me the screaming that your next-door neighbor heard coming from your apartment. He described it as ear-piercing. A woman doesn't scream like that if she's enjoying herself!"

"Maybe _you _don't'," Lee countered with a salacious grin. "Maybe you've just never had a good enough experience to make you scream like that."

"Easy, Lee," Billy said as he also rose, and placed a hand on his charge's shoulder, but Lee kept staring at the ball-busting cop in front of him, ignoring his boss.

The detective leaned in until she was nearly nose-to-nose with Lee and said, "So, you're seriously trying to convince me that your wife, a suburban mother of two, who by all accounts is as wholesome as Mother Theresa, and more conservative than George Bush, would allow you to violate her body like that?"

"It wouldn't be the first time," another voice said from behind Lee. The detective looked up toward the door, fixed the tall dark-haired man standing in the doorway with a piercing glare and snapped, "And just who the hell are you and what the hell are you doing in my interrogation room?"

"I'm Joseph King," Joe replied handing her a business card. He'd been watching the verbal sparring match for a few minutes now and had been looking for the perfecto opportunity to interject. Now, having found it, he looked straight at the tough-as-nails, rigid detective, gave her a stern look and continued his introduction to her, "I'm Amanda's ex-husband and I'm here to offer my services as legal counsel to Mr. Stetson."


	8. Chapter 8

Detective Bledsoe's eyes narrowed as she stared at Joe King, then down at the business card he'd handed her, then back up again at him. "And just how many attorneys do you think one man needs," she said coolly.

"To my knowledge, he doesn't have one at all," Joe replied just as coolly.

"What about him?" she said jabbing her finger Billy's direction. "He said he was here to act as his attorney."

Joe glanced at Billy giving him a "trust me" look, then turned back to face the detective and said, "Oh, yes, Mr. Melrose has a law degree, but he's not a practicing attorney. I, on the other hand, am." Billy couldn't help but smile as he watched Joe King at work, knowing exactly where he was planning to take this. Francine, looking insulted on her boss' behalf, opened her mouth to speak, but Billy quickly shushed her with a wave of his hand and gave her a "wait and see' look while Joe continued, pasting on a shocked look for the detective's benefit. "Surely, you haven't been questioning this man without the benefit of a licensed, practicing attorney present?' Then without giving her a chance to respond, he turned to Lee and said, "Did you waive your right to have an attorney present during questioning?"

Lee sank back down in his chair, leaning back slightly and with a smug grin, answered, "No, I certainly did not. As a matter of fact, I've never been allowed to even make a phone call."

Joe turned back to Detective Bledsoe and said, "So, you haven't allowed him to make a phone call and you haven't allowed him his right to consult with an attorney. That, alone oughtta' be enough that I can get him released without bail, maybe even get the charges against him dropped entirely."

"What!" The detective replied incredulously. "Didn't you just hear him admit that he had rough, violent sex with the victim?" She reached for the balled-up photographs and shoved them at Joe. "Did you see these? This is the mother of your children1 Don't you care about what was done to her?"

Joe merely shrugged and said, "I was married to Amanda for ten years and I know..." he paused trying to find a way to tactfully make his point, "...and as the father of her children, I know that while she may seem conservative in public...in private...she's...well, let's just say, this wouldn't be the first time I've seen marks like that on her. I've put a few there myself when we were married, especially in the days when I was travelling a lot and we didn't see each other much." Lee cringed at hearing Joe reference his past sex life with Amanda. "I imagine that Lee and Amanda, having kept their marriage a secret to the outside world would be no different. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like a moment to confer with my client in private."

"No way!"

"He has the right," Joe said keeping his cool. "Now, I don't want to have to do this, but since I've been practicing law for twelve years now, I know a lot of judges that I can call on a Saturday and just get him released now based solely on the grounds that you're violating his civil rights." The detective's face fell. "That's what I thought. Now, I want him out of these cuffs and I want to speak to him about hsi case in private."

"Fine!" She snapped as she reached into her pocket for the handcuff keys, unlocked them and with a glare at Billy said, "You'll pay for this," just before leaving the room, slamming the door behind her so hard the doorframe shook.

"So, now what?" Francine said.

"Now, you and I go back to the office and work through case files to see if we can find anyone with a grudge against Lee or Amanda who would want to hurt her," Billy said.

"Billy, wait," Lee said with a shake of his head. "Skip looking for people with a grudge against me. Only search Amanda's case files."

"You don't think someone with an axe to grind against you might have attacked her?"

"No," Lee said. "I did at first, but the more I think about it, the more I think it's something that she's worked on since she's been at the agency. If they wanted me, they had the opportunity before we went upstairs to my apartment.'

"Lee, this wouldn't be the first time that one of your enemies has targeted Amanda to get to you," Francine pointed out.

Lee shook his head again and said, firmly, "No, they don't want me. If they did, they wouldn't have waited for her to be alone. They probably figured that with two guys against one woman, she wouldn't stand a chance, but I think she fought back. I think that's why the third big-as-barn goon stepped in. I think she got a good lick or two in with the heels she was wearing last night because one of the guys was running with a limp."

"Hmm," Francine said with an impressed look on her face. "Way to go, Amanda."

"You saw them," Billy said.

"Yeah, but I didn't get a good look," Lee said as he stood and ran a hand through his hair. "It was dark, I'd been drinking and I was so damn worried about Amanda..." he paused thinking about his wife. "Have you seen her? Is she okay?"

Billy looked at Francine, who swallowed hard and said, "It's bad, Lee. She'd got some severe head trauma. She's still unconscious and they don't know when she's going to come out of it."

'Damn it!" He swore and lodged a kick at the chair he'd just vacated. "I swear to God, if she doesn't, when I find those guys I'm gonna'-"

"Calm down, Lee," Billy said. "We'll find them, but first we need as much information as you can give us."

Lee told them everything he saw and everything that he'd figured out since then, the best descriptions he could give them of the three men who'd attacked his wife, the van, the same one that had been at the embassy bringing flowers for the party. "I-I'm sorry, Billy. I don't know much more than that," he finished.

"Well, it's a start," his boss replied. "We'll get back to the office and start doing some digging and we'll let you know if we find out anything. In the meantime, try to keep your cool. That Detective Bledsoe wants your head on a platter."

"Yeah, no kidding," Lee said as Billy and Francine left leaving Lee and Joe staring at each other awkwardly.

The two men stared at each other for a moment until Joe broke the intense eye contact, sat and began to peruse the case files left by Detective Bledsoe, the only sound in the room, the shuffling of papers while Joe read studiously trying to gauge just how damning the evidence against Lee was.

Lee was the first one to break the silence and said, "I...um...guess I owe you my thanks."

"No problem, Lee," Joe answered. "It's what Amanda would want. I...um...I'm sorry about all that stuff...you know... about...me and Amanda."

"You should be," Lee grumbled. Of all the people they knew, he was the only one who'd known their secret from the start, the only one they'd trusted with it until Barney and he'd repaid that trust by throwing in his face that he used to sleep with Amanda on a regular basis.

"Look, Lee, it was necessary. A lot of her case depends on the fact that Amanda is thought of as something of a...I don't know...a goody-two-shoes...a prude, maybe?"

"Well, I think we both know _that's_ not true," Lee said pointedly reminding him of who Amanda was now married to and who she chose to sleep with now. "She's anything but."

"Then there's your past history, not making things any better," Joe said sidestepping Lee's crack, "On top of the fact that you've kept your marriage a secret." Joe sighed, finally losing his cool; he rose from his seat, fixed Lee with an icy glare and said, "God, this is a nightmare! This is exactly the kind of thing that I warned you and Amanda about when you asked me to keep your secret for you!"

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As Billy and Francine made their way across the bullpen and Billy's office, Billy said, "Francine, first thing I want you to do is find out what florist was used for that embassy reception pronto, and then follow it up with who they assigned to deliver the flowers, Got it?"

"Yes, Sir," Francine replied, but just as she was about to follow her boss' orders, she was stopped by another voice.

"Halt, Desmond," Dr. Smyth said swiveling around in Billy's chair to face them, a lit cigarette in his hand. "You'll do no such thing. You two are to keep your hands off this case."


	9. Chapter 9

Joe could no longer contain his anger as he continued his tirade to Lee. "Did it ever once occur to you that something like this might happen with the two of you living apart? This attack on her could have been prevented if you'd been living together and going home together instead of trying to sneak in a quickie before going your separate ways! You're the more experienced agent. You could have protected her from this if you'd been together. It's most likely that even if these guys did try to attack her, you could have protected her if you'd been together instead of apart!"

Joe's fury only incited Lee's as he rose from his chair, he said, "Don't you think I've thought of that every damn second since I've been in here? I've thought of this from every angle and what I could have done to stop it just like I did eight months ago when she was shot right in front of me! Look, you know damn well that we only did what we did because we were trying to protect _your_ sons. Amanda and I were both terrified of what might happen to them with us working in the business that we do."

Joe shook his head in disbelief and said, "I don't believe that." When Lee looked at him curiously, he continued. "Oh, I believe your were both afraid, but not of just that. I think your bigger fear was of attempting to have a real marriage and failing at it."

"What? You don't know what the hell you're talking about," Lee denied.

"Don't I? Let's look at the facts, shall we? You never had a committed relationship of any kind prior to Amanda. Even thought I know you love her, I think the thought of it scared you senseless."

"If that were true, I'd never have asked her to marry me," Lee countered.

"And Amanda," Joe continued as if Lee hadn't spoken. "She was just as terrified because of our marriage falling apart. She was afraid of failing again."

"No, no, you're wrong," Lee said though he knew Joe was making some sense.

"No, I'm not. Amanda doesn't talk about the divorce much, but I know she partially blames herself for it, for not travelling with me, for feeling that she wasn't enough for me to come home to when the truth is, it was my fault." Joe shook his head and changed gears. "None of this is important. I don't wanna' rehash the past."

"You coulda' fooled me the way you were talking about your past with Amanda earlier," Lee snapped.

"Look, I already told you why I did that."

"I get it," Lee said. "I do. You were trying to plead my case, but that doesn't mean it made it any easier for me to hear. Why _are_ you trying to help me, anyway?"

"I already told you, it's what Ama-"

"Can it!" Lee said. "This isn't just about Amanda and we both know it! While we're being so honest here, why don't you just tell me the real reason you're helping me?"

"Fine! You want the truth? Here it is, I was telling you the truth when I said it's because Amanda would want me to, but it's more than that. The boys adore you. I hear it every time that I have a visit with them. It's always "Lee did this" or Lee said that," and I know they would want me to help you as well. Aside, from that I owe you one."

Lee looked at him in confusion and said, "You owe me?"

"Yes, you're the reason that I'm not behind bars myself," Joe answered. "If you hadn't worked my case when I was accused of murdering the Estoccian Prime Minister, hadn't taken the time to listen to me when I told you what happened, if you hadn't believed in me-"

"I believed in you because _Amanda _believed in you even though every gut instinct that I have was telling me not to."

"Whatever the reason, you saved my skin and I'm grateful. I'm just trying to repay the favor." Joe sighed and sat down, Lee doing the same. "Look, I'm going to do everything I can to get you out of here. Since we can't seem to get this Detective Bledsoe to realize that she's basing her whole case on circumstantial evidence and drop the charges, I can at least get you released by other means. I wasn't kidding when I said I know a judge or two that I can call on a weekend. They won't schedule your arraignment until at least Monday and I don't want you spending the whole weekend in jail. I have about two hours before I have to pick up the boys from the ballpark. Is there anything you need?"

"What I need more than anything is to know that Amanda's okay," Lee said softly.

"I know," Joe said with a sigh. "Dotty said they were getting ready to move her to the ICU when she called me. Only immediate family is allowed to see her there."

"It's that bad?" Lee asked worriedly.

"Yeah, the way Dotty described it. I haven't seen her yet. I came straight here to see what I could do for you, see how bad the evidence against you is."

"It's bad," Lee said with a slight cringe.

"To say the least," Joe replied. "I can see this Detective's point of view to a point. I was reading all of this and from a cop's perspective, it looks bad. You've got Amanda's torn underwear, your semen inside her, your skin under her fingernails, the bruises, the bite marks, the mess in your apartment... If I didn't know both of you, I'd say it looked like you talked her into coming up to your apartment for a drink, made an advance and when she said no, you got more forceful, she fought back, biting and scratching you to defend herself..."

"You know, that's not what happened," Lee said. "Besides, Amanda's been around the bad guys enough to know that a little cat-fight scratch isn't going to deter a bad guy for long. If she were unarmed, she'd have been more likely to try to take me out with the lamp that was right there on the table. She's tougher than people give her credit for." Lee sighed.

"Don't I know it," Joe said with a slight chuckle. "You should have seen her toward the end of our marriage and some of the blazing screaming matches we had and of course, she always had to have the last word." he sighed again. "I think that was the point that we both started to realize that it was really over, but that's all in the past. I'm happily remarried and from what I've seen, so is she. Listen, I should get out of here. I've got a lot to do before I go pick up the boys."

"So, what are you going to do now?"

"Well, first, I'm going to call my judge friend and see what I can do about getting you out of here. Then, I'm going to see if I can't get in to see Amanda, find out what her condition is. The only good thing about your secret marriage is that she still legally has my name. I may be able to use that to my advantage to get you some better information on her prognosis."

"Yeah," Lee said with a sigh.

"I'm sorry, Lee, I know you don't like hearing that, but it's a fact. She couldn't exactly change her name to yours and still keep your marriage a secret, now could she?"

"No, she couldn't," Lee agreed. "No, you're right. I'm just thinking that when this is all over, that needs to change."

"Well, you know my opinion on the subject," Joe said. "But that's a conversation for another time. Right now, the important thing is to get this resolved. Your friends are working on finding out who attacked her to give the police another suspect to investigate and I'll be working on the legal end of it. Just try to keep your head and don't answer any questions without me here. That detective is just itching for you to say something that she can use against you, so don't say anything more to her, just to be safe."

"I get it," Lee said as Joe gathered up his things and made his way to the door. "Hey, Joe..." when the other man turned, he said, "Thanks." Joe nodded and exited mentally preparing for a fight.


	10. Chapter 10

Billy and Francine gaped at Dr. Smyth in horror. "What?" Billy said.

Smyth rose from Billy's chair and said, "You heard me, Melrose. You and Desmond are to keep your mitts off this case. Scarecrow made his own bed, so to speak. Now he needs to lie it, except that it seems he's already done that, hasn't he?"

"Sir, you surely don't believe that Lee's guilty?" Francine queried in surprise.

"No, I've known for quite some time that he and Mrs. King share more than just their office upstairs, however, this case is not agency business."

"The hell it isn't," Billy said getting angry. "One of our agents was attacked. I'd say that more than qualifies as agency business."

"Normally, I'd be inclined to agree with you, but the agency can't be exposed in this matter. Whether Scarecrow's guilty of the crime or not is a moot point. The stigma of just being accused of it is enough to follow him around for the rest of his life and you two introducing yourselves as agents to the local blues has only made matters worse. You risked exposing this agency to the same stigma."

"Sir, you have to understand-" Francine began.

"Oh, I understand perfectly, Desmond," Smyth interrupted. "But there's something that I want _you_ to understand. The agency's reputation is at stake here. Cases like this are well-publicized once the media boys get involved. Now, I've been able to put a media blackout on this thing so far, but I can't guarantee that will last. That's why you're to stay out of it!"

"No," Francine said firmly, knowing she was risking a charge of insubordination, but not caring. "Whoever went after Amanda could try again. That's why I ordered agency guards to watch her room."

"Which I un-ordered," Smyth replied taking a long drag off his cigarette.

"You're leaving her unprotected? Are you completely crazy?" Billy shouted.

"No, Billy, I assure you that I'm as sane as you are, but I have a job to do and my primary job at the moment is to protect this agency. You know that. We operate in secret for a reason." He then gestured toward the window that looked out into the bullpen. "How effectively do you think your boys and girls out there can do their jobs if the agency is exposed to a scandal like this? If you two are seen investigating this, and it becomes publicly known that one of our agents, one of our best, was accused of sexually assaulting his partner, it would give this agency a serious black eye and we'll all be looking for new employment."

"I already submitted a request for the agency to take over this case," Billy said with a triumphant smile.

"Which has already been denied by the boys over at Justice," Smyth said. "They agreed with my assessment of this situation. The best way to operate a covert agency is to be well...covert. In case you've forgotten, they provide our operating funds, including paying all our salaries." He then picked up a file from Billy's desk. "Have you seen this yet or have you been too busy trying to keep Scarecrow from stewing in his own juices to look at the things I send you?"

"I saw it this morning, but didn't have much time to really go over it," Billy answered honestly. "Something about a prison transport being hijacked and escaped prisoners?"

"Indeed," Smyth answered. "This..." he tapped the file, "This is what I want you and Desmond working on, pronto!"

"Excuse me, Sir," Francine interjected, "But isn't that something that the department of corrections should be working on?"

"Under normal circumstances, yes, but when one of the missing prisoners is one of ours, it warrants agency investigation."

Billy looked at him incredulously, snorted and said, "You think _that_ warrants investigation, but an attack on one of our own agents doesn't?"

"I never said the attack on Mrs. King didn't warrant our investigation, but whether it does or doesn't, we can't be involved in it and risk exposing the agency to public scrutiny."

"But-" Francine said.

"No, Desmond," Smyth said determinedly. "You are not to touch her case. I'm not unsympathetic, but I have a job to do as do you and this is what you're to work on from this point forward." He unceremoniously dropped the file on Billy's desk, made his way around it preparing to leave.

"I'm sorry, Sir, but that's not acceptable," Francine said. "If we stay out of this, Lee could go to prison. I mean, that Detective Bledsoe, she's out for blood."

Smyth turned to face her and said, "I'm well aware of that, Desmond. Scarecrow took a wrong turn down the yellow brick road this time and ended up in the wicked witch's haunted forest." Francine rolled her eyes and scoffed. Dr. Smyth, losing his patience, snapped at her, "How do you think I know about all of this? I received a call from her this morning about Billy invading her crime scene and again before you two came back here about you sticking your noses into her investigation. She could make some serious trouble for this agency if she publicly raises a stink. That's just one more reason for you to stay out of it. Don't make me write you up on formal charges. Now, as for the wicked witch, I did manage to come to an agreement with her to allow her flying monkeys in blue to watch over Mrs. King from this point forward." He nodded toward the file on the desk. "Now, children, this discussion is over. Work the case I told you to work. Who knows? You might find something even more worthwhile in it." He winked at them than said, "Toodles," yanked the door open and exited, leaving the two of them staring after him in open-mouthed shock.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Joe entered the ICU, introduced himself to the nurse at the desk as the father of Amanda's children, flashing her a glimpse of his wedding ring for emphasis and was given directions to Amanda's room. He cringed at the deception he'd used to gain access to her room, but technically, he wasn't lying. He'd never actually told her that he was her husband, just the father of her children. He didn't know how Amanda did it on a regular basis, pretending to be someone that she was not and how she'd gotten so good at the deception necessary to carry it off. He shook his head as he entered her room thinking that his initial assessment of her when he'd first returned to DC was accurate. She had definitely changed.

At the sound of footsteps behind her, Dotty turned and as seeing her ex-son-in-law, flew out of her seat and ran to embrace him tightly. "Joe, I'm so glad you're here," she said.

Joe hugged her back for a moment, then pulled back, nodded toward Amanda and said in a worried voice, "How is she?"

Dotty said, "No change. The doctors say..." she swallowed hard as she tried to control the quaver in her voice and keep the tears at bay. "...they...um...they don't know when...um...or if she'll wake up." She glanced at her unconscious daughter and then back at Joe and said, "Did you get to see Lee? Talk to the police? Do they know anything? Do they still think that he did this to her? I mean, it's utterly ridiculous for them to think that he's the one who...who..." she took a deep breath and finally spit out the abhorrent word, "...raped her. What on earth could they be thinking? They've obviously got the wrong man and while they're accusing him, her real attacker is running around out there somewhere and who knows who else he might to this to while they're treating Lee like a criminal. I mean, if they knew him, if they could see them together, see him with the boys, how wonderful he's been to them...to Amanda-"

"Dotty, stop," Joe said, placing a calming hand on her arm. "I know you're upset and worried, but you've asked me about a dozen questions and I have some answers, but you need to let me get a word in. Can we just sit down and talk about this?"

Dotty nodded. "I'm sorry. I'm just..."

"I know," Joe said as he gently took Dotty's arm and led her out of Amanda's room to the waiting area. "Okay, first of all, I've got some good...well, sort of good news for you anyway. Contrary to what the doctors and the police believed, Amanda was not raped."

Dotty breathed a sigh of relief, "Oh." She sank into the nearest chair as a little of the tension in her body relaxed. "That is something, I suppose." She looked up at him and said, "But I don't quite understand. Why are they so determined to believe that Lee..." she trailed off unable to even put the two thoughts together.

Joe sighed and sat in the chair across from her. "A lot of it has to do with the fact that she was leaving his apartment when she was attacked."

"I see," Dotty said then realization dawning, she repeated knowingly, "I see."

Joe nodded, grateful that she understood his meaning without him having to go into great detail. "Lee heard her screaming from outside and tried to help her, but he was too late and the men who attacked her got away. By the time the police arrived, they saw only Lee with her and that combined with the physical evidence..."

"They jumped to the wrong conclusion," Dotty said.

"He's been trying to convince the police that the two things are unrelated, but the lead detective, she's...she has her mind set that Lee...well, you know."

"Did Lee say whether he knew who attacked her?"

"He gave the best description that he could to the...the authorities," Joe hedged trying to keep the agency's name out of it knowing that Dotty was unaware of the real nature of Amanda's job. "But he said he didn't see a lot since it was dark. he described a big guy with a tattoo, two average-looking guys, a black van." He also thought of how Lee had recalled seeing the same van while prepping for last night's party and that he thought that these guys might have been following them for a while. "Think, Dotty. Do you recall ever seeing any strange men in the neighborhood or this van?"

"I...um...I..." Dotty wracked her brain, searching her memory banks. Her face lit up and she answered excitedly, "Yes, yes, yesterday, there was a flower delivery to the house and I'm pretty sure that the delivery man drove a black van. He delivered the most beautiful vase full of roses for Amanda. It was funny because the card said that they were from Lee, but when she called to thank him, he said that he didn't send them. She said that he even teased her about getting flowers from another man. At the time, I thought he was just being shy about it. You know, he did always strike me as the type of man who gets embarrassed easily when it comes to romantic gestures, but..."

"But maybe he wasn't," Joe said as he pondered this new information, reconciling it with what Lee had said about the flower delivery to the embassy. "Is there anything you can remember about the guy who delivered them?"

"I..." she sighed and said, "No...oh, but there was a man...or two men, really...here...when Amanda was still in the ER...They...they were just coming out of her room right after I called you. One of them had a tattoo..." she indicated her forearm. "...right here."


	11. Chapter 11

Billy and Francine looked at one another in silence for a moment, both still reeling from Dr. Smyth's tirade before Billy walked around his desk and sank into his chair wearily. He picked up the file, skimming it briefly before putting it back down with a sigh. "We need to get started on this," He said without looking up.

"Billy, you're not serious," Francine said her eyes wide.

"I am," Billy said with a glance at Dr. Smyth's retreating figure through the window. "The old man...something about the way he was acting..."

"Like he's a politician instead of an agent," Francine suggested. "If he had ever spent the time that we have, dodging bullets, chasing bad guys-"

"Enough, Francine," Billy said. "This doesn't change the assignment I gave you. I still want you to run down that florist just like I asked you to do."

"But Smyth?"

"Never has to know about it," Billy said. "You made a good point. Whoever is after Amanda could try again. Lee seems to think that whoever it was, was only after her. I'm going to look at all the case files she's worked on in the past year. When you get done with the florist, check with Beaman, see if something in one of her class assignments may give us a clue." Francine nodded and proceeded to the door, but was stopped by Billy's voice, "And Francine?"

"Yes," She said pausing with her hand on the doorknob.

"If Dr. Smyth should catch on to what you're doing, I want you to protest yourself. Tell him that I ordered you to do this and that you were just following orders. Let me take the heat with him."

"Billy, no," Francine said with a shake of her head. "This is Lee and Amanda. I want to help. I _need _to."

"I know," Billy said with a nod. "But the old man doesn't need to know that."

"But-" She sighed then said, "I'm not gonna' let you take the fall for this."

"Yes, you are and that's an order," Billy said. "Now, don't argue, just do it!"

Francine jumped a little a Billy raising his voice. She knew that tone and knew when hearing it that he wouldn't be swayed. "Yes, Sir," she said and hurriedly left the office to follow her boss' orders.

After she left, Billy once again opened the file on his desk, intending to peruse its contents more thoroughly, feeling that with Dr. Smyth's behavior, there must be some piece of it related to Amanda's attack. He looked at the details of the attack on the prison transport, reading that they had been picking up prisoners who had been injured during their capture and had been recuperating in a guarded hospital and rehabilitation center before being transferred into the federal prison system. As he read through the file, he still didn't see what was so important that Smyth felt this deserved their attention when Amanda was in danger. "Damn it," he swore as he continued to read the accounts of the hijacking from the guards assigned to it, smoke bombs, guys with guns, blah, blah, blah. "Come on, where is it?" Billy said aloud looking for the pieces to complete the puzzle.

As he flipped to the next page, he was interrupted by the ringing of the phone beside him. "What?" he snapped in irritation. Now was not the time. "Sorry, Mrs. Marston," he apologized as he listened to her reason for calling. "Oh, I see. I'll be right up...Yes, me!" He snapped at her argumentative reply. "It's time for the secrets to end." He slammed the phone down flung open the door to his office where he found Francine at her desk on the phone. "Francine," He said to her.

Francine quickly covered the mouthpiece, "I'm on hold with the Embassy right now waiting for their events coordinator to get on the phone, what's up?"

"Hurry up with that phone call. We're gonna' need a sketch artist, then get Ernie in gear, interrogation room one, pronto!"

Francine sighed, "But what about the florist?"

"I think we just got something better," Billy said.

"You got it," Francine said as hung up the phone and quickly began to dial again as Billy exited through the glass doors of the bullpen and waited impatiently for the outside elevator.

Upstairs in the Georgetown foyer, Dotty fidgeted nervously wondering just what was going on and why Joe had insisted on leaving the hospital and why he'd taken her to IFF. She looked at her ex-son-in-law and said, "I don't understand, Joe. I should be at the hospital with Amanda."

"I know, Dotty," Joe said in a soothing tone, "But you're a witness and your statement could be very useful in helping to bring Amanda's attackers to justice."

"I understand that, Joe," Dotty snapped impatiently. "I'm not a complete idiot, but why are we here where Amanda works? Shouldn't we be talking to the police? I mean, there were two police officers that arrived to watch Amanda's room just as you were dragging me away from her. Couldn't they help?"

"No, the police think they already have their culprit. This is better," Joe said emphatically.

"But what can a bunch of film people do? I mean, I know they have government contacts...Oh, that's it, isn't it? You think that maybe some of their government friends can help, don't you?"

"Just trust me, Dotty," Joe said. He then turned to the matron at the desk and said, "What did he say?"

"He's on his way," Mrs. Marston replied coolly as she peered over the top of her glasses at them. _So this is Mrs. King's mother, _she thought and thought how appropriate the nickname Dotty was.

"Actually, he's here," a deep voice said from behind them as Billy exited the elevator. When Joe and Dotty both turned his direction, he took in their faces, Joe's look of relief and Dotty's of surprise, who looked quizzically at Joe. "Joe," He said with a cordial nod, then turned his attention to Dotty, and said, "Mrs. West, how nice to see you again. I understand that you have some information that may be useful to our investigation into the attack on your daughter."

"_Your_ investigation," Dotty said. "I'm afraid that I don't understand. Why would federal agents being investigating an assault on my daughter like this one."

Billy sighed and said, "I know this is confusing for you, Mrs. West, but I promise that I will explain everything to you...or as much as I can anyway. I'm sure that you understand from our previous encounters that there are some things that are classifi-"

"Don't you dare finish that statement," Dotty snapped. "I do not want to hear the word "classified" come out of your mouth again! I heard that too many times during our last two encounters! This is my daughter's life we're talking about here and I need...No, I _demand _some real answers!"

Joe placed a hand on her back to calm her and said, "Easy, Dotty."

Dotty let out a deep breath and said, "Mr. Melrose, please, what is going on here?"

Billy himself sighed and said, "The reason that we're investigating this is because the attack on Amanda was related to one of our cases."

"How does this keep happening?" Dotty said. "You and your agents were hunting her and her boyfriend down as if they were common criminals just a year ago and now you think that she was attacked because of one of your cases. Why? I just don't understand. I realize that IFF works for the government, but what on earth could a simple documentary film maker have to do with a federal investigation?" Billy and Joe exchanged a knowing glance, which was not lost on Dotty. "What?" She turned to Joe and said, "You know, don't you?"

"Dotty, if you'll just give Mr. Melrose a chance..." Joe said.

"Please, Mrs. West," Billy said as he reached for her arm. "If you'll just come with me."

"NO!" she said as she backed away from him. "I am not going anywhere with you until you tell me what's going on here!"

Billy sighed again, glanced for a moment at Mrs. Marston's animated facial expression, who seemed to be getting entertained by watching him squirm. He then turned back to Dotty and said, "I know you want answers and I'll give them to you, but I should warn you that you may not like what you hear."

"I'm listening," Dotty said as she folded her arms across her chest.

Billy took a deep breath and began, "The reason that we were investigating Lee and Amanda a year ago and the reason that we're investigating her attack now is that she's not a simple documentary film maker. She never has been and neither has Lee."

"Mr. Melrose, I don't understand. I saw the IFF sign out front clear as day when we came in here. Her paychecks all say IFF on them. What you're saying doesn't make any sense."

Billy nodded and said, "I know. The simplest way that I can explain to you is to tell you that IFF is not what it appears to be. It's merely a cover to protect the government agency that we work for."

"When you say "we," you mean..." Dotty stopped having trouble reconciling the thought in her head with what she knew about her daughter.

As if reading her thoughts, Billy replied, "Yes, Mrs. West, Amanda is one of us and so is Lee."


	12. Chapter 12

As Billy's last words, there was an uncomfortable silence in the Georgetown foyer of the agency. Dotty stared at Billy in open-mouthed shock and for the first time in her life, stunned into speechlessness. She looked at Joe in confusion, who sighed and nodded in confirmation, but still no one spoke for a moment, none of them quite sure what to say. Dotty then turned her attention back to Billy with a questioning gaze, but couldn't find the right words to express herself and neither could Billy or Joe. Mrs. Marston solved that problem by clearing her throat loudly behind them.

"If you don't mind," The agency's watchdog said in her normal cool, unflappable tone. "If you're quite finished making a spectacle in my office here-"

"Of course, Mrs. Marston," Billy said politely cutting her off before she could go any further. "Mrs. West, If you'll please come with me...I know you must have some questions and I'll answer what I can, but I need to ask you some questions about what you saw first."

"Go on, Dotty," Joe said encouragingly. "He's a good man. You can trust him."

"Not to interrupt this _Afterschool Special_ moment," Mrs. Marston began.

"We're going," Billy said as he once again reached for Dotty's arm to guide her toward the closet elevator, this time without her fighting him.

Dotty turned back when she realized that Joe wasn't following. "Aren't' you coming too?" She asked him.

"No, Dotty, I have some legal things to take care of for Lee and then I have to go get the boys. I'll come back by to pick you up later to take you back to the hospital."

"No need, Joe," Billy said. "I'll make sure she gets there."

Joe nodded and said, "Thanks," as he made his exit while Billy and Dotty entered the elevator.

"Watch your head," Billy warned as the doors closed behind them indicating the bar the coats hung on.

"Huh," Dotty said. "Well, I think I finally understand why Amanda never liked to talk about her work."

"I know that she's been keeping secrets from you and how hard that has been on you, but part of her job is protecting this country's secrets. As I'm sure you can tell by the fact that we use IFF as a front, this agency operates covertly. No one is supposed to know that we even exist."

Dotty bit down on her lower lip, reflecting on all the bizarre things that had happened in her daughter's life in the past few years, the pieces finally starting to fit together. "How long?" She inquired.

"Four years," Billy answered. "Lee's been with us longer than that, fourteen years now. He's the one who recruited Amanda." He then smiled at Dotty and added, "With a little nudging from me." He then nodded to the just-opened doors and said, "This is our stop." He stepped out and with a nod indicated for her to follow him as he made his way toward the glass doors of the bullpen. "This way."

Dotty was a little taken aback when he opened the door for her, surprised after her prior encounters with him that he appeared to be a gentleman. "Thank you," she said as she stepped through the doors.

As the door closed behind them, Billy glanced across the room and not spotting Francine at her desk said to the nearest agent, "Duffy, have you seen Francine?"

"She went down to the training department. Something about threatening Beaman with bodily harm if he didn't cough up the information that she wanted," Duffy replied with a laugh.

"That's Francine," Billy said.

"She said to tell you if you got back before she did, that she's got you all set up in the conference room."

"Conference room?" Billy questioned.

"Yeah," Duffy replied. "She said she thought it would make your "guest..." he eyed Dotty for a moment, "...more comfortable than an interrogation room."

"Makes sense," Billy said wondering why he hadn't thought of that.

"Chuck and Ernie are in there waiting for you," Duffy said with a jab of his thumb at the conference room.

"Thank you," Billy said, then turned to Dotty and said, "If you'll just go on in there, I'll meet you there in a minute. I just need to grab something from my office first."

Dotty folded her arms tightly across her chest and said, "Mr. Melrose, I am not going anywhere until I know more about what's going on here." The initial shock having worn off, she no longer found herself at a loss for words.

"It's very simple, Mrs. West," Billy said. "Those men you saw in Amanda's hospital room may very well be the ones who put her there. I want you to work with our sketch artist to try to identify him. Now, please, the more we know, the closer we're going to get to finding the people who hurt Amanda. I mean, you don't want them to get away with it, do you?"

"No, no. Of course not," Dotty said relaxing a little at the pleading look on Billy's face. Could it be possible that he actually cared about Amanda's well-being?

"Okay, the go on in and get started and I'll be there soon," he said.

Dotty sighed and said, "All right," as she walked toward the room he had indicated while he trotted off to his office.

Billy quickly entered his office, snatched up the file Dr. Smyth had left there early this morning and returned to head the direction of the conference room where he found that Dotty was chatting animatedly with Chuck, the sketch artist, describing in great detail the burly man she'd seen in the ER. He glanced at Ernie and said, "No Francine yet?"

Ernie shook his head and said, "Nope. She told me to load this thing up with photos from the mug books. Said that Lee said something about the goons who jumped his partner looking like hired guns. So, Francine figured at least one of them probably had a record."

"Good thinking," Billy said. "Francine's a smart one."

"Excuse me," Dotty interjected. "This Francine you're talking about? Is that Miss Desmond who was at the hospital to see Amanda this morning?"

"Yes, Mrs. West," Billy answered.

"So, you're telling me that she's a...a..." she lowered her voice to just above a whisper, "...a spy, too?"

Billy chuckled and said, "It's okay, Mrs. West. You can say that word in here. We're underground for a reason. To answer your question, yes, she is. She's my assistant and a damn fine agent."

"Funny," Dotty said. "She didn't strike me as the spy type, of course, I guess when I really think about it, neither does Amanda. I mean, who in their right mind would ever suspect a suburban mother of two of being a spy. It's just unthinkab-" She broke off as a realization hit her. "That's why you recruited her, isn't it? Because she seems so normal that no one would ever suspect that she's a spy."

"That's one reason," Billy answered. "But there's more to it than that. The first time she got involved in one of our cases, I saw how smart she was, how savvy, how brave. She put the pieces together of a puzzle that had all of us scratching our heads and not only that, but without having any kind of training or weapons, she marched right into the bad guy's lair to rescue Lee, without even thinking about the danger to herself. She did it just because she felt it was the right thing to do. I also saw the calming effect that she had on Lee right from the start. While he's the best in the business, he was also the loosest of loose cannons in those days, brash, reckless, sometimes to the point of near-self-destruction. To be honest, I was worried that he was headed for burn-out or worse, for setting himself up on some kind of kamikaze missing that would cost him his life. He was incredibly unhappy in those days and hell-bent on making up his own rules, defying me at every turn, working non-stop, and when he wasn't working, he was throwing himself into a life of empty partying and even emptier relationships. I really believe that Amanda saved his life in more ways than one that day."

"That's where you're wrong, Mr. Melrose," Dotty said. "You have no idea how unhappy my daughter was until she met Lee. I believe that _he_ saved her life."

"You may be right about that," Billy said. "Now, if you could just go on with your description of the man you saw..." Billy sat down opposite her and once again perused the file in his hands.

"Oh, yes, of course."

Dotty turned back to Chuck and continued while Francine and Beaman entered the room arms laden with files. Billy looked up for a moment and said, "You find anything yet?"

"Not yet," Francine said as she dropped her pile on the table, "But this is everything from the vault that she's worked on in the last year or so."

"And I've got all of her class assignments here," Beaman said. "I actually had them all together already since her review is coming up. It's been a year since she started the agent candidate program and it's time to decide if she's ready to graduate."

"Good," Billy said. "Start with the oldest and work your way forward." Billy then turned his attention back to the file in his hands, flipping through the pages until he found what he'd been looking for, the list and history of the escaped prisoners, just as Dotty began describing the second man for Chuck. Her words caught his attention. "Hold on, Mrs. West, back up a minute. Did you say the second man had a patch on one eye?"

"Yes, that's what made him stand out to me, well, that and the scars," Dotty explained.

"That's it," Billy said as he rose and showed his list to Beaman and Francine, pointing at one particular name.

"Jake Williamson?" Francine questioned.

"Of course," Beaman said as he pulled a file from his stack. "The Statik Aerospace mess."


	13. Chapter 13

Lee once again found himself pacing relentlessly across his cell. After his visitors had left and Detective Bledsoe had returned to the interrogation room, he had become the perfect intelligence agent and clammed up under interrogation, which only served to fuel the brash detective's ire, giving him an enormous sense of satisfaction as he watched her facial expressions change.

"So, what, now that your "attorney's" not here, you decide to stop talking," She snapped.

Lee simply replied, "My attorney has advised me against saying anything else without him present," and grinned at her.

She had then leaned in across the table at him and glared, saying, "You _will _answer my questions."

Lee had then leaned in just as she had, eye to eye with her and said, "Listen, Lady, you know what I do for a living and this...this...attempt an intimidation is not going to work on me. I've been interrogated by the KGB's best agents in the business and they could never break me, so what makes you think you can? You think you're tough? You haven't see tough. Not until you've been locked in a dank, windowless room for days on end with no food, no human contact. I've been tortured to within an inch of my life and never broke. You're wasting your time in keeping me in here."

"You think so? Well, you don't know me. I've broken tougher tough guys than you. I know guys like you and just what it takes to push you over the edge and here's a tip. I can do this all day."

"You don't know a damn thing about me," Lee fired back. A thought occurred to him at her comment about knowing guys like him. "So, what is it about you that makes you so damned determined to believe the worst even when you've already had three people tell you that I wouldn't do anything to hurt my wife, huh? Is there some good-looking guy out there who smashed your heart into little bits? Is that why you're such a cold fish now?" When she didn't answer, he continued with, "Or maybe it's worse. Maybe somebody did to you what you're accusing me of doing to Amanda." At seeing her cool facade falter for just a moment with a slight flinch, he thought, _bingo! _"That's it, isn't it? That's the real story. You've been a victim yourself. That's why you're so hell-bent on believing I'm guilty of a crime that I didn't commit."

"I'm the one asking the questions here!" She snapped.

"Well, you can ask all the questions you want. I'm not answering them," Lee said as he flung himself back into his chair, folded his arms across his chest and glared at her, his look daring her to challenge him.

"You wanna' know why I'm so _hell-bent _on believing you're guilty? It's because you _are_ guilty!

Lee again, no longer able to contain his fury, rose from his seat and shouted, "The only thing that I'm guilty of is not protecting my partner the way that I should have! I should have realized sooner that there was someone spying on us and following us around. Fourteen years in this business and I let her get attacked and you all you can see is what you want to see! You're not looking at the big picture here; that while you're going after me, the real perps are still out there and may go after her again because they didn't finish the job the first time! Now, I'm locked up in here and I still can't protect her! I swear to you that if they get to her and succeed where they failed last night...If she..." He voice became choked as he tried to finish his thought. He took a deep breath and began again. "...If my wife dies because of your negligence, I will make damn sure that you pay for it! Do you hear me?"

"Are you threatening me?" she said narrowing her eyes at him.

"Threatening? No, I'm not threatening you. I'm guaranteeing you that if _anything _happens to her, anything at all while you're sitting there with your head up your ass, I will personally take you down!" He stared her down and said, "Now, you're not getting one more word out of me about this, so you might as well give it up and either let me out of here or take me back to my cell because I'm done!"

She'd finally relented, realizing that he wasn't going to say anything that might incriminate himself further and had had him led back to his cell again. Lee raked his hands through his hair as he paced and muttered, "Hang in there, Amanda, don't give upon me. I need you." The longer he was locked up, the more agitated he became at wondering who was after her and why and what they might try next and the more distressed he became with worry for his wife when he couldn't be there by her side.

His thoughts turned to his mother-in-law who he knew _must_ be by Amanda's side right now and wondered what she must be thinking. Surely, with the violent nature of the attack on her, the police would have questioned her. He wondered if they'd told her about all the circumstantial evidence against him. If they had, would she believe them? He hoped that as much time as he'd spent with her and the boys that she'd have more faith in him than that. He thought back tie the number of times that she'd teased him about bits of his clothing turning up in Amanda's laundry and smiled slightly. She'd never specifically said it, but he knew by her words, her gestures and her knowing facial expressions that she was telling him in her own way, "I know you're sleeping with my daughter." No, she'd never believe that he'd force himself on her. He comforted himself for a moment with that thought before his thoughts turned back to Amanda, wishing for the millionth time that he'd done something, anything different last night to stop the attack on her, mentally kicking himself for not having her back the way that he should have.

His thoughts were interrupted by the rattle of keys behind him. He whipped around to see one of the uniformed cops unlocking the door to his cage. His face turned from one of worry to one of pure fury, "If you're here because that shrew of a detective wants to pepper me with more questions, you can just go on back the way you came," He snarled.

"Relax, Stetson. Your lawyer's here and you're outta' here...for now," The cop said as he slid open the cell door and stepped aside to make room for him to exit. Lee turned to see Joe standing there with an armload of clothing.

"Hey," Joe greeted him.

Lee's eyes lit up and he said to him, "Did you get the charges dropped?"

"No, I'm afraid not," Joe said grimly, "But I did managed to get you released on your own recognizance. Here's the deal, though. You're not allowed to leave the city and your arraignment is scheduled for two o'clock Monday afternoon. I'm hoping to present enough evidence to get the charges dropped then before it can ever go to trial."

"Well, call me optimistic, but I'm hoping Amanda wakes up before then so she can personally deny that I raped her and tell that guttersnipe that she was a more than willing participant."

Joe shifted uncomfortably and said, "...um...here," he handed him the pile of clothes. "Why don't you change so we can get you out of here." Joe turned his back so that Lee could change in semi-privacy.

Lee looked at the clothes he'd been handed and said, "These aren't the clothes that I came in here wearing."

"No, the police are holding onto them as evidence against you because of the...um...the forensic evidence on them," Joe said suddenly regretting his decision to help Lee, not because he didn't want to help, but because it was becoming increasingly more awkward due to the reason the evidence had been there in the first place. "I...um...I went to your place and got those for you." He knew that Lee had felt uncomfortable with him using his past relationship with Amanda in his defense, but now he was the uncomfortable one when being confronted with the evidence that the woman he'd once thought he'd spend his whole life with had moved on. It wasn't that he was jealous, just the opposite. He was happy for her. He'd known since coming back to DC when he'd first seen Lee and Amanda interacting with one another that there was something between them, so it hadn't surprised him a bit to start seeing Lee hanging around the house as much, if not more than he did. While he was happy that Amanda had moved on and was happy, being slapped in the face with the details of her private life was making him edgy and more than a little uncomfortable.

"Great," Lee grumbled as he shucked off the jailhouse orange and began to dress, pulling the tee that Joe had brought him over his head followed by the jeans.

"I hope those are okay," Joe said. "I didn't know for sure what you'd want. If you make me a list, I can go back later and pick up more of your stuff."

"Nah." He turned back to Joe. "You can turn around," He said as he reached to the blue knit pullover sweater Joe had included. "I can just swing by there later if I need anything else."

"Actually, you can't." Joe said darkly. "Your...uh...your apartment has been closed off as a crime scene. I was only allowed to go there with a police escort."

Lee finished pulling the sweater over his head, snorted and growled, "I don't believe this. There _was_ no crime committed there. Outside the building, yes, but not inside my apartment."

"Maybe not," Joe said, the skepticism evident in his voice, "But with the mess your apartment was in, I can see why the police think there was."

"You're not saying that you're starting to believe their accusations?"Lee said incredulously. When Joe was silent, Lee said, "Come on, Do you seriously think I would ever hurt her?"

Joe sighed and said, "No. No, I'm just saying that this is going to be an uphill battle fighting the charges against you…unless by some miracle Amanda wakes up before your court date on Monday to defend you."

"Yeah," Lee said, then at the thought of his wife being hospitalized, he sighed and said, "Let's get out of here. I need to see her," as he pushed past Joe and walked out of his cell.


	14. Chapter 14

Lee shifted nervously in the passenger seat of Joe King's car when he saw the turns he was taking and said, "Why are we going this way? The hospital's the other direction. I need to see Amanda."

Joe sighed again and said, "I know. I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but you're not going to be allowed to see her. She's in the ICU where they only allow immediate family to visit and even if you could get around that by convincing them that you're her husband, her room is guarded by DC's finest and since you're..." Joe's voice trailed off as he found himself unable to complete the thought.

"Since I'm the one they think put her there, they won't let me in," Lee said. For what felt like the millionth time since this whole thing started, He said, "God, this is a nightmare." He shook his head. "All I wanted was one uninterrupted night with my wife. Is that too much to ask?"

"You brought this on yourself, you know," Joe said tired of seeing Lee getting bogged down in self-pity, "You and Amanda both with your secrecy. If you'd been together..."

"Spare me the lecture, okay? I heard this all already!" Lee snapped.

"Well, I don't think it sank in the first time. If you'd been living together as a husband and wife should, the men who did this to her might never have had the balls to attack her in the first place. Even if they did, there's no way the cops would have ever accused you of raping her if you'd been there with the family, if it were publicly known that you're married to her. Dotty and the boys would have been witnesses that someone else attacked her. Instead, you've got a witness who overheard you two fighting, heard her screaming from your apartment, and plenty of forensic evidence all over both of you that makes it look as if you forced yourself on her. The bite mark on your chest and the scratches on your neck could easily be taken to be defensive wounds. You combine that with the bruises on her neck and her hips, the torn underwear and it doesn't look like anything except rape. Don't you get how much trouble you're in?"

"Yeah, I get it," Lee said. "Believe me, I do."

"And without Amanda to testify on your behalf that it was consensual, it's very likely that at your arraignment, the judge is going to determine that there's sufficient evidence for this to go to trial." He pulled his car up to the curb in front of Lee's apartment building and violently shoved the gearshift into park.

"What are we doing here? I thought you said I couldn't go in, crime scene and all," Lee said.

"You can't, but your car's here and I thought you'd need it." As they both exited the car, he then reached into his pocket and handed Lee his keys. "I grabbed these off your entry table. I thought you might need them."

"Thanks," Lee said and swallowed hard as he took in the sight of the broken glass a few feet away, his mind flashing back to the helplessness he'd felt the night before in not getting to Amanda in time to prevent her from being hurt. "Where's her car?"

"The cops impounded it," Joe explained. "The last I know, they were combing it for evidence. Listen, I've got to go pick up the boys soon. I know you're dying to see Amanda, but my advice to you is to stay away from the hospital. They won't let you in anyway and if you try to fight them on it, it will only make you look guiltier, as if you're trying to finish the job."

"I hear you," Lee said. "What do you suggest I do?"

"Go to the agency, Dotty's there now," Joe said. "I think you should know that Billy told her the truth about what you do for a living."

Lee's eyes widened in shock. "Why would he do that?"

"She saw two men leaving Amanda's room this morning and I thought your people needed to know about it. If you can catch these guys before your arraignment and prove that you're not the one who attacked her..."

"I get it," Lee said with a nod. "Thanks."

"I'm gonna' take the boys home with me. They...um...they don't know yet what happened to their mother. Dotty and I discussed it and decided it was best to leave them in the dark for awhile until we know what's what with Amanda's condition and not worry them needlessly. I don't want them going through what they did when she was shot." He gave Lee a pointed look.

At the look on Joe's face and the tone in his voice, Lee got the sense that Joe not only blamed him for the recent attack on Amanda, but her shooting as well. He supposed he couldn't blame him. After all, he blamed himself too and this incident had served as a painful reminder that he hadn't acted quickly enough then either. He hadn't seen where the shots were coming from soon enough to prevent his bride from taking a bullet in the chest. If he had, he'd have never told her to get back in the car. He had beaten himself up repeatedly over it. Hadn't he learned from all the times that he'd told her to stay in the car and she hadn't listened that it was better to have her by his side than waiting in the car? Now wasn't the time to get into all that though. He took a deep breath and said, "Yeah, that's a good idea. Besides, if they don't know anything, they can't be targets. When I get to the agency, I'll see if I can't get Billy to put a watch on your house just to be safe until we know who's after Amanda."

"You think they may go after the boys?"Joe asked worriedly.

"If they were trying to kill Amanda, it's hard telling what they might try next. I honestly don't know what we're up against here. I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out who would want just Amanda and not me too."

"Well, maybe Dotty's statement will help," Joe said hopefully.

"Yeah, I...uh...I should get there and find out."

"Yeah, I'll come back by after I drop the boys off at my house. Carrie knows what's going on and is going to look after them while I work on your case. You and I need to work on how we're going to approach this when it goes to court and we only have the rest of today and tomorrow to do it."

Lee nodded and said, "Yeah, seeya' later."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In the agency conference room, Billy, Francine and Beaman were discussing their discovery that Jake Williamson had been behind Amanda's attack while Ernie, clutching Dotty's sketch in one hand was flipping through photo after photo in an attempt to identify the thug, Dotty looking on, awed by his talent.

"I can't believe that we didn't put this together before," Billy said with a shake of his head. "Williamson is one of the few enemies that Lee and Amanda have faced over the years who would have a specific grudge against Amanda."

"Right," Beaman agreed. "He started that smear campaign against her just to keep her from investigating further when he realized that she was starting to put the pieces together of his plot to sell off the plans for the HK-86."

"I've got Lee and Amanda's case file right here," Francine said as she pulled a file from her stack, placing it with Beaman's report from the class assignment that had started it all.

Billy then laid Dr. Smyth's file alongside the other two and said, "According to this, after Amanda set off the self-destruct sequence, the explosion did some serious damage to Williamson. The blast hit him from behind and there's mention here of nerve damage leading to paralysis." He turned to Dotty and said, "You said that he was in a wheelchair, didn't you?" When Dotty nodded, he turned back to his agents and said, "That fist with this," as he pulled pages from his file. "Williamson has been in a guarded rehabilitation center along with the flunky of his that Lee shot since this whole thing happened and was just being transferred into the prison system Friday morning when the transport bus was hijacked. Francine, I want you to get on the horn with the department of corrections and see if you can get witness statements, see if their description of the hijacker matches Mrs. West's of the guy with Williamson at the hospital."

"Yes, Sir," Francine said. Just before leaving, she turned and said, "I guess the old man was trying to help us after all." As she opened the door, she came face to face with the man in question. "Dr. Smyth," she said startled as she glanced nervously at the pile of files on the table before quickly making her escape.

Smyth entered the room, glanced at the scene in front of him, the files scattered on the table, Ernie at the end of it in front of a monitor, Mrs. West beside him. He glared at Billy and said, "Billy, I do hope that you haven't been foolish enough to disobey a direct order."


	15. Chapter 15

Dr. Smyth closed the door of the conference room firmly and said, "Well?" after a moment when Billy was still silent.

"We haven't gone near Detective Bledsoe, her crime scene or her investigation," Billy answered. "You'll notice that these are the pages from the file you left on my desk this morning regarding the hijacked prison transport."

"Well, It's good to know that for once, my request hasn't fallen on deaf ears," He walked slowly around the room surveying the piles of files on the desk. "So, if you've been such an obedient little worker bee, then what's all this?"

"It...Uh...it didn't immediately click that the reason you wanted this worked on was...um... b-b-because of Jake Williamson," Beaman stammered nervously.

"We were just cross-referencing your file on the hijacking with case files," Billy explained in a much calmer tone that Beaman's. "When it hit me who Jake Williamson was, I asked Beaman to bring Amanda's class assignments for reference purposes."

"Ah," Smyth said as he picked up Beaman's file and perused it. "Ah, yes, Mrs. King certainly put a bee in Williamson's bonnet, didn't she? It was the first time in my career that a freshman working on a routine security review for a class assignment has uncovered a treacherous scheme to sell of our secrets." He tossed the file aside and said, "Though I understand that she's been keeping a few secrets of her own that you uncovered while you were treading on the toes of our _lovely_ Detective Bledsoe."

"I don't know what you mean," Billy said evasively.

"Come now, Billy, don't be coy," Smyth replied. "I told you I heard a venomous earful from that snake of a detective about your interference in her case. She told me that you discovered that Scarecrow and Mrs King tied the knot in secret and of how you attempted to no avail to use that fact in his defense, not that I didn't already know about it already."

"What?" Billy said in confusion while Beaman, looking equally confused said, "They're married?"

"I've known it for months, as you should have, Billy, and you Mr. Beaman, you're supposed to be shaping the young minds of our freshman, teaching them observation skills, so how could you not have known? It's obvious to anyone with eyes that the pair has been more than partners for at least a year, maybe more."

"I-I-I-" Beaman sputtered until Dr. Smyth held up a hand to silence him.

"It's no matter," Smyth said. "The point of this little exercise, Children, was to teach you all a little lesson. You still haven't learned that there is very little that happens here that I don't know about. I wasn't made the Director of Covert Operations for nothing."

"Well, then for once, why don't you start acting a little more like an agent and a little less like a politician," Billy sniped.

"No, can do, Billy," Smyth said. "You hate me, I know, but it's of no consequence to me. I have a job to do, as do you." He nodded to the files on the desk, "Progress report?"

"From what we're seeing here, we think that the two events, the hijacked prison transport and the attack on Amanda, are connected," Billy said.

"Bravo, Billy," Smyth said with a smug smile. "You just earned yourself the kewpie doll."

"You knew?" Billy said incredulously.

"Of course, I knew," Smyth, said. "Why do you think I gave you that file to begin with? It was just too much of a coincidence that a man that Mrs. King did so much damage to escapes from custody and she's attacked within hours of that escape."

Billy shook his head and said, "Then why'd you order us off the case? If you knew they were related, you should have wanted us to stay as far away from this prison transport thing as possible."

"Must I spell it out for you?" When Billy glared at him, he continued, "Here it is. I assigned you this because I was quite serious when I said that this agency can't be seen openly investigating the vile charges against Scarecrow as it would look as if we're just trying to cover up for one of our own, not to mention the stigma the accusation itself would place on this agency. However, if you happened to come across information that would lead you to apprehending an alternate suspect..." He paused for dramatic effect, smiling at seeing Billy's eyes lighting up.

"We could openly investigate without it looking as if we're investigating," Billy finished for him.

"Precisely," Smyth crowed.

"I'm sorry," Dotty said having watched the verbal ping-pong and becoming more confused by the minutes. "Who is this Williamson person and what, exactly did Amanda do to him that he would want to hurt her? For that matter, who is this Scarecrow that you're saying my daughter tied the knot with and..." Her ramble was interrupted by a familiar voice behind her.

"Me," Lee said with a sigh as he entered the room. When she turned to face him, he said, "Dotty, I'm Scarecrow."

Dotty flew from her seat to embrace her son-in-law and gushed as she gripped him tightly, "Oh, Lee, I'm so happy to see you!"

"I'm happy to see you too, Dotty," Lee said as he pulled back from her right hug.

"How did you get out of jail? The police told me that you were arrested for hurting Amanda, but I want you to know that I never believed it for a second. I know how much you love my daughter and that you'd never do something like all of the horrible things they were accusing you of and I told them so. I mean, it's absolutely ridiculous to think that you'd-"

"I know, Dotty, I know," Lee said and smiled at the face that his mother-in-law had believed in him in spite of the damning evidence against him. He turned to Billy and said, "Anything?" his voice taking on a pleading tone.

"Yes, actually," Billy said as he handed lee the file in his hands.

"I'll be damned," Lee said as he flipped through it. "Of course, Williamson. God, why didn't I think of this? He'd be the one person who'd want to see Amanda dead more than he would me. That's why he waited until she was alone."

"Here's the thing, Scarecrow," Billy said. "We don't think he did the job himself. He wouldn't be physically capable of it because Amanda put him in a wheelchair."

"No, I know," Lee said. "I didn't see him anywhere around last night, but this guy," he pulled a photo out of the pile; "this one was there. He was one of the ones holding Amanda when that linebacker smashed her head against the car." he looked at the photo for a moment before handing it to Billy. "I put a bullet in his shoulder last year during that showdown with Williamson and his men. Now, that I think about it, I'm pretty sure the second guy who was holding her was the other guy I shot during that whole thing. What I can't figure out though is who the brute is. I know he wasn't there when Amanda and I took Williamson down."

"That's why Mrs. West is here," Billy said with a nod to Dotty. "She saw him and Williamson in Amanda's ER room this morning."

"What?!" Lee yelled. "Did they do something to her, try to finish the job they started on her last night and why wasn't she being protected? Joe told me the cops were watching her room, so how'd they let these guys anywhere near her?"

"It happened before she was moved to the ICU and before there was a guard," Billy explained.

"Just tell me, Billy, did they hurt her?"

"No," Dotty answered before Billy could. "When I walked in the room, they were just leaving and the man in the wheelchair, this Williamson said he was an old friend." She shuddered slightly at the ominous tone with which he'd said it, his words taking on a whole new meaning now that she knew he was the one behind putting her in the hospital in the first place.

"That doesn't make any sense," Lee said. "If he wanted her dead, why didn't he just finish what he started when she was helpless and unprotected? He had the perfect oppor-" He broke off as a thought occurred to him. "Maybe he doesn't want her dead. Maybe he just wants her to suffer." He pointed to the file in his hand and continued. "According to this, he's been going through some rather painful rehabilitation since Amanda set of that bomb that blew him to kingdom come."

"Good theory," Billy said, "and it would explain the two guys who held her down since they were involved in Williamson's scheme. While you're the one who shot both of them, they may blame Amanda since she was the one who put all the pieces together of what they were up to."

"Still, though, it doesn't explain who the big galoot was with them," Lee said as he leaned against the table still flipping through the file looking for clues.

"Got him!" Ernie shouted triumphantly.


	16. Chapter 16

All heads turned to Ernie "the camera" expectantly and Lee said, "Whatcha' got, Ernie?"

Ernie nodded toward his screen and said, "Look," and as Lee leaned over his shoulder, he continued with "Ian McKay."

"That's the guy," Lee said as he looked at the mug shot, his hands balled into fists, his mind flashing back to the night before, images of him smashing Amanda's head into her car assailing him. If he could just get his hands on this guy... He took a deep breath, tore his gaze from the monitor and said, "Beaman, do you mind0"

"Already on it," Beaman said as he hurried out the door already knowing what Lee was going to ask him.

Billy glanced worriedly at Lee, having witnessed the moment of pure fury etched on his charge's face, "You okay, Lee?"

"Am I okay?" Lee said with a snort. "No, Billy, I am very far from _okay_. I'm being accused of assaulting my own wife by that vicious shrew of a detective while she's letting her real attackers get off scot-free and meanwhile, I'm barred from being by Amanda's side where I should be."

Dotty who'd been silently watching all of this in stunned silence at seeing the young man she knew, become someone entirely different, becoming an investigative secret agent right before her eyes. "Why that's ridiculous. If you're her...her husband," she faltered a little, still trying to wrap her mind around the fact that her daughter had married without her knowledge.

"Dotty, Joe told me they won't let me in because they think I'm the one who put here there," Lee replied angrily.

"Perhaps if you and your paramour hadn't decided to hide your nuptials, you wouldn't be in this situation," Dr. Smyth commented as he wedged a cigarette in his holder and lit it.

"Spare me," Lee said, "I've heard enough of that crap spewed out by her ex."

"Just stating the obvious," Smyth replied coolly.

Lee glared at Dr. Smyth icily and was about to say something further until he saw a warning look on Billy's face and thought better of it.

"Ernie, you've been a big help," Billy said with a nod to him.

"It wasn't that hard," Ernie said sheepishly. "A tattoo like that is pretty distinctive so it was easy to spot. Are you done with me then?"

"Yes, Ernie, you can go," Billy said. "Both of you," Billy added with a nod to Chuck as well. He glanced over at Lee and couldn't help noticing that he was still staring at Dr. Smyth with murder in his eyes. "Scarecrow," He said in a warning tone, but Lee didn't so much as flinch.

The stalemate was broken by Francine re-entering the room with a note pad in her hands, "What's going on in here?" she said looking from Lee to Billy to Dr. Smyth.

"What have you got, Francine?" Billy said dodging her question and wanting to keep their minds on the case.

Lee broke his eye contact with Dr. Smyth who said, "I'll just let you fine people get to it," as he left the room.

"Francine," Billy said to get her attention as he noticed her gaze had shifted to Dr. Smyth's retreating form, obviously still distracted by the tension in the room.

"Oh, right," Francine said with a shake of her head. "I talked to DoC and the bus driver and the guards on the bus all gave the same description of a big galoot with a dragon tat and the other two guys were on the bus with Williamson and all three of them tag-teamed the three of them. They're faxing over their report."

Billy nodded, "Ernie found the big guy in the mug shots, so when we get the fax, we'll just add it to Mrs. West's as more corroboration that someone else attacked Amanda."

"There's more," Francine said. "I finally got a call back from the event planner at the embassy with the info on the florist that they used for the party, a place downtown called "Flower Power."

"You're kidding," Lee said with a bemused expression.

"I wish," Francine said with a roll of her eyes. "The owners are apparently still living in the 60's, peace, love, including a membership to Amnesty International. Here's the real kicker, they're so into freedom for the "oppressed," that they have an agreement with a parole officer named..." she consulted her notepad, "Clyde Waterman to provide jobs to his parolees."

"I'm just betting this Waterman has that big goon on his list of parolees," Lee replied.

"Probably," Billy said.

There was a moment of silence in the room as they pondered this new information until Dotty, feeling increasingly out of place, spoke up and said, "Mr. Melrose, I'm very glad that all of you are investigating Amanda's attack and trying to bring these men to justice and I'm happy to do my part to help, but I really would like to get back to my daughter."

"I understand, Mrs. West and we'll let you get out of here shortly," Billy said sympathetically.

"Perhaps my..." she glanced at Lee, "...son-in-law could take me. I know that he's dying to see Amanda and if anyone can get him in to see her, it's me. After all, they think I'm her next of kin, even though..." her voice trailed off as she shook her head, still reeling from the news that Lee and Amanda were married.

"You know that's not a bad idea, Lee," Billy said. "We can't really have you doing too much on this investigation with the charges against you hanging over your head. It might hurt your case, make it look like you're just looking for someone else to take the fall to throw suspicion off yourself."

"No way, Billy," Lee said with a shake of his head. "You're not pulling me from this."

"I don't want to, Lee, but I don't have a choice. Dr. Smyth made it very clear that none of us are to be seen openly investigating the attack on Amanda and you're not the most level-headed when it comes to Amanda or do I have to remind you of what happened in California when you caught up with guy who shot her? What you did to Scott?"

"He nearly killed my wife, Billy," Lee fired back. "How would you feel if it were Jeannie?"

"I get it, Lee, I do, but my answer is no. You can help behind the scenes here with the investigative part of things, but you're not to go after Williamson. Leave that to us."

"Billy..."

"NO!" Billy said harshly. "I'm sorry, Lee, but you can't. We'll get him, but you need to be as far removed from this as possible."

Lee sighed, running his hands through his hair in frustration just as Beaman re-entered the room with a thick folder in his hands, "Got him," he said.

"What have you got," Lee said.

Beaman read from the file, "Ian McKay, We've got files on him going back to 1974 from our London operatives, including your mentor, Emily Farnsworth."

"Right," Lee said as he took the file from Beaman and perused it, "The IRA bombings in the 70's. He was involved?"

"According to that, he was never linked with the bombings themselves, more like the IRA's muscle man. It wasn't until 1980 when he showed up in DC that we started tracking him here in the states," Beaman said, "Even when we did catch up with him, the only thing we were able to pin on him were a couple of aggravated assault charges."

"Which means he wouldn't do a whole lot of jail time," Lee said as he skimmed the file. "Oh, would you look at that. Guess who his parole officer is."

"Waterman," Billy said with a nod.

"Yeah, but there's one thing that still doesn't make sense to me," Lee said as he tossed the file onto the table with the others. "How does a professional bruiser with the IRA get involved with a guy like Jake Williamson who's into selling secrets?"

"I don't know," Billy said. "We'll ask him when we catch him or maybe the other two who were with Williamson when you and Amanda caught him the first time."

Lee shook his head and chuckled dryly, "And to think this all started with Amanda noticing that Statik Aerospace was ordering two much floor wax. I told her she was just being paranoid at the ti-" Lee broke off as a thought occurred to him, "Floor wax. That's it!" he nodded to the pile of folders on the table. "You have Amanda's report in there on the original case?"

"Here," Billy said as he handed the requested file to him. Lee looked it over to find what he was looking for. "Scarecrow, what is it?"

"Here," He said handing it back to Billy and pointing. "When we were digging into their files last year, we discovered that they had three extra janitors on the payroll that what Grimebusters was billing them for."

"Right," Billy said as he looked over the file. "I remember that from the original case. So?"

"So..." Lee said. "When we caught up with Williamson, he only had two of them with him, not three."

"Wouldn't Williamson himself have been the third," Francine questioned.

"No," Lee said with a shake of his head. "I thought the same thing at the time, but Williamson was director of plant maintenance. He wouldn't need to pose as a janitor to get in and out of the building after hours. So, I'm thinking that while these other two guys were stealing pieces of the HK-86, he was their bodyguard in case they go caught."

"But what's in for him," Billy questioned.

"Cash to fund his IRA activities is my thinking," Lee said. "The HK-86 was the hottest ticket in town at the time. If Williamson had succeeded in selling it off, they'd have had plenty of cash to go around for all four of them."

"You might be on to something there," Billy said. "But let us take it from here."

"Billy," Lee protested.

"I mean it, Lee, get out of here. Take your mother-in-law and go see your wife," Billy said.

Lee felt himself torn between his need to chase the bad guys and his need to be with Amanda, just as he had in California. He sighed and then finally nodded and said, "Yeah. Come one, Dotty, let's go see our girl." He helped her from her seat and led her out of the room.

They were both silent all the way from the conference room to the Georgetown Foyer. I wasn't until they reached his car and Lee was pulling away from the curb that Dotty spoke. "All right, I want an explanation and I want it now!"


	17. Chapter 17

"I want and explanation and I want it now," Dotty demanded as Lee pulled the 'vette away from the curb.

Lee sighed. He'd known this day would come, he and Amanda both had, had planned for it, had even rehearsed what they would say, but Lee now found that for all their talk about it and all the practice, he was at a loss for what to say. He took a deep breath, grateful that he was driving and needed to keep his eyes on the road because that meant he wouldn't see Dotty eyes boring into him. "Dotty, I...that is we...Amanda and me..."

"You're married, I get that. You're spies, I get that too. What I don't get is all the secrecy."

Lee sighed again and said, "We kept both things a secret for the same reason. What we do is very dangerous and we felt that if you or the boys knew, it could put you or them in danger. Neither of us would have been able to live with ourselves is something happened to you or Phillip or Jamie because of what we do for a living."

Dotty shook her head with a "Humph. That doesn't make any sense. Didn't your Mr. Melrose say that you were the best in the business?"

"He said that about me?" Lee said with a smile.

"And Amanda," Dotty replied. "He said you're the best team he's got. So if that were true, why wouldn't the two of you think that you could protect your family? I mean, you were just talking about these three men who attacked her and how you shot two of them and she blew up the other one. That tells me that you both have the skills to protect yourselves and us."

"Yeah, well, I wasn't so good at protecting her last night," Lee grumbled.

"Oh, stop feeling sorry for yourself," Dotty said. "If you get bogged down in self-pity, how are you going to be any help to Amanda? Now, I said I want some answers and I meant it. Let's start with when you were married. It was obviously before Amanda was shot since I heard Mr. Melrose say that you did something to the man who shot her."

Lee chuckled sardonically. "Yeah, we were married before she was shot," Lee answered, "Onelousy day before she was shot. We had just gotten off the plane to start our honeymoon and we were going to meet and old friend of mine when bullets started flying out of nowhere." He related the whole story to his mother-in-law finishing with, "I couldn't protect her then, just like I couldn't protect her last night."

"Let me ask you something, were you expecting trouble either time? Because it sounds to me as if you weren't working either time so there shouldn't have been any reason that you should have felt that you had to protect her either of those times."

"But I'm the senior agent, the one who's supposed to look for trouble and I missed it both times and she's suffered for it twice now."

"I never knew you were so chauvinistic," Dotty said with a shake of her head.

"What? I am not," Lee argued.

"Yes, you are if you think that you have to protect her. Isn't she an agent too? Hasn't she been trained on how to defend herself? Didn't she know the risks when she starting working with you?"

"Okay, yes, all of that is true, but a partner is supposed to back up-"

Dotty cut him off. "This isn't about Amanda being your partner; this is about her being your wife. Would you be taking it this hard if it were any other agent that you have for a partner?"

Lee contemplated her words, reflecting back on Eric, his long-dead partner of years ago and while he'd taken his death hard, Dotty was right. It wasn't the same thing. "I can't lose her," Lee said in a small voice. "You don't understand, Dotty. I hate this, okay. I have never felt this damned helpless in my life as I do now. She's in the hospital fighting for her life again and I can't even do anything to help put away the guys that put her there. I've got these charges hanging over my head because the ignorant cops working the investigation won't even attempt to look for other suspects because they think I'm their man. You have no idea what I'm going through here?"

"God, you're so selfish!' Dotty shouted. "Have you ever stopped to consider what I'm going through here? I get a call in the middle of the night that my daughter's been attacked, I have to call a neighbor to stay with the children because once again, I can't get in touch with their father, and your phone was busy..."

"And I was busy being arrest," Lee input but it didn't stop Dotty's tirade.

"...Then I had to call a cab to get to the hospital because I don't have a car of my own and Amanda had hers. Then I sat for hours and hours while nobody at the hospital would tell me what was going on. When they finally did tell me what was going on, the police wanted to question me as if I were some common criminal, then I was horrified to hear them tell me that my daughter was raped."

"She wasn't, Dotty," Lee said.

"I know that now, but I didn't until Joe told me that, so I was left there for hours thinking that my only daughter had been violated in the most disgusting way possible."

"You...you didn't think that I did it?" Lee questioned.

"No, Lee, of course not and I told those policemen that," Dotty replied. "I told them that they had the wrong man, that it was ridiculous to think that you would ever hurt her."

"Thanks," Lee said gratefully.

"But they just kept talking about forensic evidence and how they knew what they were talking about, said they had proof that you raped her," Dotty said. "They wouldn't believe me."

Lee cleared his throat loudly and said, "Um...the...um...They're not wrong about the forensic evidence. Logically, I can see where they jumped to the wrong conclusion because we...I mean...The evidence suggests...because we were..." Lee sighed again and said, "Oh, hell."

Dotty chuckled at Lee's embarrassment and said, "Lee, don't you think I know that you and Amanda had sex last night? I may not be a secret agent like you, but I'm not stupid, you know. I know the two of you have been sleeping together for months and I kept hoping that this relationship of yours was for real because I know my daughter and I know that she would never give herself so completely to a man that she didn't care deeply for. I kept hoping that one day, I'd hear the two of you announce your engagement, but instead all I heard were things like, "We need more time" or "Can't you just let us be happy together?" Now, I know why. There never could be an engagement announcement when you're already married. I had such dreams of doing all the things a mother's supposed to do for her engaged daughter, engagement parties, bridal showers, sending out announcements, planning a wedding, arguing with her over the menu and who to invite, but you two deprived me of all that and not only that. You deprived the children of a real father figure. Don't get me wrong, you've been great with the boys and I admired the way that you jumped right in to get to know them, to spend time with them, to let them know that you cared not only about their mother, but about them too. Yet, all this time, you've been their stepfather and they never knew it. That's just...it... well, it's just wrong. My grandchildren have never had a stable male role model and you could have been providing that to them. Instead you decided to sneak around and hide as if you and Amanda were having some clandestine love affair instead of being husband and wife." Dotty took in a deep breath once her speech was finished.

"Feel better now that you've got that off your chest?" Lee said as he pulled the 'vette into a parking space.

Dotty chuckled and said, "A little."

Lee turned the engine off and for the first time, turned to face her and said, "Look, Dotty, we screwed up. We both know that. We knew it a couple of months into our marriage. It was harder than either of us ever imagined it would be, but the longer it went on, the harder it got for us to figure out a way to just come clean about what we did. Keeping secrets has become second nature to both of us now because we have to keep so many secrets on the job. I'm sorry that we hurt you."

"It seems to me that you hurt yourselves too," Dotty said as she got out of the car and made her way to the entrance of the hospital, leaving Lee no choice but to follow her.

When he caught up with her, it was at the elevator where she'd just pushed the button to take her upstairs. "You're not wrong about that, Dotty," Lee said as the elevator doors opened and they stepped inside together. "Being married but living alone has been sheer torture for me."

"I can imagine that it has been," Dotty said in a much softer tone. "I know how much you love Amanda. I see it every time that you're together, in the way you look at her, the way you find little ways to touch her, whether it's holding her hand or brushing her hair back from her face, the way you always have a habit of placing you hand on her back."

Lee chuckled. "You know something, as observant as you are, you might make a decent agent yourself," he teased breaking the tension between them causing her to laugh.

They were still laughing when they exited the elevator and walked down the hall to the ICU, but Lee's laughter was abruptly halted at the sight in front of him.

"Hold it, Hotshot," Detective Bledsoe said with a sneer. 


	18. Chapter 18

Author's Note: For this chapter, I modeled the ICU area of the hospital after one of our local hospitals here in which I spent a lot of time when my little brother was dying of cancer. If it doesn't fit with local DC hospitals, I apologize. Just writing what's familiar to be as in my research for this fic, I wasn't able to find much on the internal design of DC-area hospital ICUs, just floor plans and maps.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

While Lee and Dotty were at the agency, Joe had done what he'd said, picked the boys up from their game and then had gone right back to work on Lee's case. First, he paid a visit in person to his judge friend to get a necessary subpoena for the recordings from the interrogation room, and then he made his way back to the police station. He now sat with the Captain in their A/V room, the other man fidgeting nervously and clearly becoming more and more agitated by the minute as they watched the recordings of Detective Bledsoe's unorthodox interrogation of Lee.

When the tape ended, Joe said to him, "You see what I mean, Captain Rich? Your detective completely violated my client's rights."

"I-I don't know what to say," the captain replied. "I've never seen her behave like this. She's one of my best, has an exemplary record, and has received numerous commendations even for her work in putting violent criminals away."

"Which my client is not," Joe said firmly. "She was presented with enough evidence by his co-workers to cast doubt on the charges she laid against him, including three, count them,_ three_ witness statements about Lee Stetson's character and that he would never hurt his wife! One from her mother," He slammed Dotty's statement to the uniformed officers at the hospital in front of him, "One from their boss," He then did the same with Billy's statement, "and finally one from a woman they work with on a daily basis who also happens to have once dated him!" He slammed the final document down harder than the prior two for emphasis. "Now, don't you think that if a woman that he once dumped would defend him, that that's saying something?"

"You're not wrong," The captain said with a sigh.

"And that's not even including my own statement! I know Lee Stetson! He's been a stepfather to my children for months now! Do you honestly think that I would allow him around my teenage boys if he were a violent criminal?"

"I see your point," Rich replied as he perused the statements in front of him. "I'll take care of this right now." He walked out into the busy police station, glanced around and when he didn't see the object of his search, shouted, "Hey, anyone know where Bledsoe is?"

A pudgy, balding detective with a stogie clenched tightly in his teeth stepped forward and answered, "Working the King case. She said she was going to the hospital to question the vic's mother and the hospital staff."

"Thanks, Tuggy," Rich said and then added, "What are you working on now?"

"Just paperwork from my last case," Tuggy said with a shrug.

"Not anymore," Rich replied firmly. "Pull all of Bledsoe's files on this case. You're on it now. I want you to start from the beginning. It seems there may be evidence that's been overlooked."

"You got it," Tuggy replied.

Joe smiled a satisfied smile as he watched this interaction from the doorway then approached the captain, "Thank you, Captain."

Rich then turned to Joe and said, "Look, I'm not saying that your client's not guilty when there's a lot of physical evidence to suggest that he is, but if this investigation has been mishandled in any way, I'm going to make sure that it's done the right way."

"That's all I'm asking for, a more thorough investigation," Joe replied and then smiled smugly at the captain and said, "I mean, after all, if there's evidence that certain avenues of this case were not explored, I could easily use that to get the charges dropped when this goes before the judge on Monday."

"Well, you can just save that for the courtroom, _Counselor_," The captain answered huffily, his disdain for lawyers evident in his tone. "I will make sure that I do my part to ensure you can't use any fancy lawyer tricks to get him off if it turns out that he is guilty."

"So, you still think he's guilty, in spite of the evidence to the contrary," Joe said incredulously.

"I'm not saying that he is or he isn't. That's not my job. That's for a court to decide. My job is to make sure that we have the facts in order to present them to the prosecutor."

"You just make sure you have _all _the facts," Joe fired back. "I'd hate to see all of your department's hard work be wasted by persecuting an innocent man. Then I might just have to encourage my client to file harassment charges against this department for false arrest, violation of his rights, ignoring protocol and a few other things." Joe cast a warning look at the captain, and then walked out, satisfied that he'd made his point.

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"Hold it, Hotshot," Detective Bledsoe said with a sneer as she stepped in front of Lee to block his entrance to the ICU's waiting area.

"Get the hell out of my way," Lee said through gritted teeth as he attempted to push past her, but she stopped him with a hand on his chest.

"Oh, no, you don't. Do you honestly think I'm going to let you in there so that you can finish the job you started on her?" She then poked her finger into his chest to make her point.

Lee only grinned at her and said, "Careful there, Detective. You're starting to border on police brutality there. Now, take your hands off of me."

"Oh, this is utterly ridiculous," Dotty said appalled at the detective. "Just who are you and what right do you think you have to keep my son-in-law away from his wife?"

"Your son-in-law?" Detective Bledsoe questioned. "So, you're the victim's mother?"

"Yes, I am and for the record, the _victim _has a name," Dotty replied coolly. "It's Amanda and you are not stopping us from going in there to see her. We are her family. Now, if you'll excuse us." She then turned to Lee and said, "Come on, Lee, Darling, let's go see her." She pushed her way past the brash detective, Lee following her with a smug grin Bledsoe's way. They made their way to the sign-in desk for visitors and she said, "Dotty West, here to see Amanda King. I'm her mother and this is her husband, Lee Stetson."

"The woman behind the desk looked at her quizzically and said, "How many husbands does she have?"

"I beg your pardon," Dotty said looking affronted by the sarcastic comment. "See here, young lady, I don't appreciate your tone or your insinuation. My daughter only has one husband and it's this man here."

"What about Mr. King who was here earlier? He said he was her husband."

"What?" Lee said.

"He did no such thing," Dotty said. "I was here. All he said was that he was the father of her children, which is quite true, however, he hasn't been her husband in five years. They're divorced. This man is her husband now." She indicated Lee. "Now, you _will_ let him in to see her."

"If he's her husband, why is her name still King?" The young woman challenged.

Dotty scoffed and said, "Do you know how many women in this modern age we're living in don't change their names when they get married? Are you going to let him in to see her or do I have to go over your head? I assure that I will if that's what I have to do!"

"No...There...Um...there's no need for that..." the woman stammered.

"Good," Dotty said with a firm nod. Once Lee was led back by a nurse to see his wife, Dotty then turned on the detective. "Now, just what on earth to you think you're doing in treating my son-in-law as if he were some kind of low-life degenerate!" She demanded.

When Lee was shown into his wife's room, his heart caught in his throat at seeing the shape she was in, her pale face, the bandages on her head, and the bruises on her skin that were not the result of their wild romp of the night before. "Oh, God, Amanda," he whispered as he sat by her side and clasped her hand in his bringing it to his lips and kissing it tenderly before laying it back by her side, still keeping his fingers entwined with hers. "Honey, I'm so sorry." He reached with his free hand to brush a lock of hair from her face and then leaned in to place a gentle kiss to her forehead. "I'm so, so sorry."

"Amanda, don't leave me," he pleaded in a harsh, choked whisper. "I need you. I-I-I'm in a lot of trouble here and you're the only one who can get me out of it. Not only that, I-I-I just need you. I need you to come back to me. Please, Amanda, you've got to come back to me." He didn't know if his wife could hear his pleas or if they were falling on deaf ears, but he had to try.

Lee's mind flashed back to their argument of the night before and he said, "Goddamn it, Amanda! Why couldn't you have just stayed with me last night? You know I'd have made sure you got home in time to be there for the boys the way I always have! If you'd stayed, you would have been safe and none of this would have ever happened? Why do you have to be so damned stubborn!"he yelled in the hopes that she'd sit up argue with him. He sighed, knowing that it was just as much his fault for even suggesting the asinine mystery marriage in the first place, Joe's words haunting him. He wasn't wrong. The secrecy of their marriage was really what had led to this.

"God, Amanda, I'm sorry. You're fighting for your life and here I am yelling at you. I don't know what to do here," he said, the melancholy taking over again. As he kept talking to her, begging her to wake up, to grace him with one of her beautiful smiles, he reflected back on a similar scene many months ago when he'd held her hand and begged her to fight. As those memories washed over him, he found his despair once again turning to anger, followed by a familiar lust for vengeance. "I swear to you, Amanda, I'm going to get the bastards who did this to you and make them pay." Billy's orders be damned, he was determined to get justice for his wife.


	19. Chapter 19

**Saturday, 5:00 PM**

Joe King was once again walking down the hallway in Lee's apartment building, only this time, not to his apartment. He found the apartment number he was looking for and knocked firmly on the door. When it was opened by a surly-looking man, he said, "Hello. Mr. Winn?"

"What's it to you?" The man replied.

"Mr. Winn, I'm Joe King," He said as he handed him his card. "I'm Lee Stetson's attorney. I'd like to ask you a few questions about your statement to the police if you don't mind."

"Well, I already told the cops everything so if you wanna' know about it, ask them," Winn replied icily.

"I have, but I'd like to hear it from you."

"You're not a cop. I don't have to answer your questions."

"No, you don't, but here's the thing. As Mr. Stetson's attorney, I have the right to ask you the same questions that the police did and if you don't want to cooperate voluntarily, I can subpoena you and legally require you to answer my questions. I would rather not do that though."

Winn glanced at the card in his hand and said, "King, huh? Are you his girl's old man?"

"Excuse me?" Joe said a bit taken aback by the comment.

"I always figured she was married. This ain't the first time I've heard them arguing about him wanting her to stick around and her talkin' about going home to her kids and sneakin' out of his place before the crack of dawn like she had somethin' to be ashamed of. I even heard him once say that he was tired of sneaking around. I told him once in the elevator that he oughtta' get a girl of his own and quit messin' around with a married chick, but he just gave me this look like he wanted to kick my ass so I shut right the hell up."

"So, if you've heard them argue before, why was this the first time you called the police?" Joe inquired.

"'Cause this is the first time it's happened in the middle of the damn night. I work grounds maintenance for the country club and I gotta' be at work before the high-and-mighty rich golfers get there for their tee times. When I get woke up a 2AM when I gotta' work at 5, that makes me a little cranky."

"I can understand that," Joe said in a sympathetic tone in an attempt to get the man on his side. "So, can you tell me exactly what you heard last night?"

Winn sighed and said, "All right, all right. If we're gonna' do this, you might as well come on in, so I can at least be comfortable." He then opened the door fully to allow Joe entrance into his home.

"Thank you, Mr. Winn," Joe said. "I promise I'll try not to take up too much of your time." As Lee's neighbor flopped down on his couch and Joe took a seat in a chair opposite him, he asked, "So, Mr. Winn, I'm a little confused here. You said that you knew they were seeing each other for a while and that you've seen her leaving here early in the morning before so what would make you think that after all this time they've been doing this, that he would rape her?"

"I never said that," Winn replied. "The only thing that I told the cops is that I heard her screaming, heard them having one hell of a fight and then heard her screaming again from outside. Is that what this is all about?"

Joe looked at the man in surprise and said, "You didn't know that he'd been arrested for assaulting and raping her?"

"Hell no," Winn said. "I thought they just took him in for disturbin' the peace. I figured he'd get off with a slap on the wrist. I was wondering why he'd need a lawyer for that."

"The charges are much more serious than that, I'm afraid," Joe said. "That's why I'm here."

"Well, I can tell you, the guy may be a pain in my ass, but there wasn't no rape, not when she's been willingly giving it up to him on a regular basis for months. You know what they say, you can't rape the willing." He shook his head and said, "This is why I hate cops. Always wanting to look for a crime where there ain't one."

"Well, I'm afraid there was a crime committed. Mrs. King was attacked when she left the building and is currently in a coma so she can't testify on Mr. Stetson's behalf. That's why I'm trying to find out as much as possible to build a defense for him."

"Damn," Winn said with a low whistle. He then gave a nod to Joe's wedding ring and said, "So, I got a question for you. How come you're defending him if he's been banging your old lady?"

Joe cringed a little at the other man's crude phrasing, but still kept his cool. "She's not my "old lady." She's my ex-wife. We've been divorced for five years. I've remarried since then."

"And you still get along?"Winn inquired in amazement with a shake of his head. "Shit, my ex-old lady and I don't even talk anymore unless she's calling me to bitch that the child support check is late."

Joe, not wanting to discuss his relationship with Amanda with a total stranger, changed the subject by saying, "Mr. Winn, I'd like to thank you for your time. Can I count on you to testify in court on Monday to what you just told me?"

"Yeah, I don't like the guy, but I also don't like seein' the cops tryin' to railroad nobody either."

"Thank you," Joe said with a curt nod as he exited the apartment. As he made his way back down the hall, he paused at seeing a uniformed police officer approaching Lee's door.

"You King?" The officer said.

"I am," Joe replied.

The officer nodded and said, "My captain sent me down here to make sure you get access to the crime scene."

"Thank you," he replied to the beat cop as he was granted admittance to Lee's apartment. Soon after entering, he extracted a camera from his briefcase, He walked through the apartment, photographing every bit of evidence that he could that Amanda willingly spent a lot of her time here, a couple of the cardigans that she was known to wear hanging on the coat rack just inside the front door, a fair amount of her work clothes hanging in Lee's closet, two drawers of the dresser containing more intimate apparel, toiletries including her favorite perfume on the bathroom counter, her favorite shampoo in the shower. He then began rooting through the drawers of Lee's desk until he found one other item that he was looking for, a steel lockbox shoved to the back of the bottom drawer. "Bingo!' he said triumphantly as he pulled the key to it that he'd taken from Lee's key ring earlier on a hunch that he might need it. He opened the box to photograph its contents as well, a small packet of photos of their wedding day, a copy of their marriage certificate and the icing on the cake, a pair of gold wedding bands in a velvet box, along with a diamond engagement ring and the credit card receipt bearing Lee's name from the jewelry at which they'd been purchased.

Joe put his camera away, exited the apartment with a cordial nod to the police officer, but then paused again as he passed by the apartment on the other side of Lee's, wondering what observations his other next-door neighbor might have made that could be used in his defense. As he rapped on the door, he smiled at the idea that he was taking apart Detective Bledsoe's case against Lee piece by piece and found he couldn't wait for the arraignment to tear her to shreds in the courtroom.

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"Now, just what on earth to you think you're doing in treating my son-in-law as if he were some kind of low-life degenerate!" Dotty demanded her eyes flaring in anger.

"Just what the hell do you think _you're_ doing letting that man in to see your daughter? Are you trying to get her killed? Did you see what he did to her?"

"I saw _very_ clearly what was done to her, "Dotty said with pained expression, "But that doesn't mean that it was done by him. I will never believe that Lee would _ever_ hurt her and if you knew him at all, you wouldn't believe it either."

"Oh, I know him, believe me," Bledsoe replied. "I know all about him and guys like him. They use women for what they can get from them and when they're all used up, they toss them aside and move on to the next one."

"Well, that's just not Lee Stetson," Dotty said emphatically. "He's a good man who loves my daughter unconditionally and not only that: he loves her boys as if they were his own. He's been an absolutely wonderful influence on my grandchildren. He makes time for them more than their father ever did. I've been so happy to see my daughter so in love and I'll tell you something else; the last time I saw a man so in love with a woman was with my own dear husband, Carl. I've always wanted that kind of happiness for my daughter and she found it with Lee."

"Happiness?" The detective replied sarcastically. "Have you looked at her and seen what kind of _happiness_ he's given her?"

"What is wrong with you? Why are you so determined to go after an innocent man instead of looking for the real criminals? Do you have some personal vendetta against my son-in-law? If that's the case, then you oughtta' be reported to your superiors! I have half a mind to do just that!"

"That's already been taken care of," Said a gruff male voice from the doorway of the waiting room.

Both women turned to face the man who'd just spoken and at seeing her superior standing there giving her a disapproving look, Detective Bledsoe, with an expression like that of a scolded child said in a small voice, "Sir, what brings you here?"

"You do, I'm afraid," Captain Rich replied. "I need you back at the station. You're off this case."


	20. Chapter 20

Detective Bledsoe's face flared with anger at her captain's words and she shouted, "What the hell? I have busted my ass on this case to nail this guy, Stetson to wall! You can't pull me of this one!'

Captain Rich just shook his head and said, "I can and I have. You're not to touch this case again! Now, get your ass out of here and back to the station, pronto! We're going to have a conversation about this when we get there. You've got some serious explaining to do!" When she just stared aghast at him. "Move it before I add insubordination to the list!"

"Y-y-yes, Sir," She stammered, but before exiting cast a sharp glare at Dotty who just smiled back smugly.

"I'd like to see my daughter now," Dotty said to the sign-in clerk. The clerk quickly got on the phone to request an escort for her and within minutes, she was being led back to her daughter's room. She paused in the doorway, a sharp stab of pain striking her as the scene before her was eerily familiar. There sat Lee at Amanda's bedside, clasping her still hand in both of his, his head bowed, almost as if in prayer, very much as she'd seen him the day she'd arrived in California after her daughter had been shot.

As she quietly approached, she heard Lee softly whispering against Amanda's hand, "Come on, Amanda, fight. You've got to come back to me. Please, come back to me. I love you so much." Dotty gently laid her hand on his shoulder and he jumped at the contact, abruptly releasing Amanda's hand and turning to face his mother-in-law. "Dotty," he said. "I...uh...I didn't hear you come in."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you," she said softly, sadness gripping her as it was obvious that he'd been crying. She'd done her fair share of it too.

"If you can sneak up on me after fourteen years in the intelligence business, I stand by what I said earlier. you'd make a hell of an agent," He teased in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"Oh, no," Dotty answered. "I'm too big a blabbermouth. I could never keep the kind of secrets that you and Amanda have," she added pointedly.

Lee looked at her sheepishly and said, "I...Um...I know you're probably angry with us, but you...you do understand why we did what we did, right?"

Dotty nodded and said, "I do. I understand, but understanding doesn't make the hurt go away, Lee." When Lee started to interject, she held up one finger to shut him up and continued, "But now is not the time to discuss this. That's a conversation for another time when Amanda's able to join us in that conversation."

Lee nodded and rose from his seat, offering it to her, "Here, sit down. You've been up since last night. You must be exhausted."

"But what about you? I imagine you didn't get much sleep in jail either."

"No," Lee admitted. "None, in fact. I couldn't stop thinking about those sons of bitches who did this to her, couldn't stop worrying about her since I couldn't be with her."

"I know you've been anxious to see Amanda, but you should go home and get some rest," Dotty suggested.

"I can't," Lee said. "I don't have a home to go to at the moment. Joe told me that I'm not allowed in my apartment until the police have decided that it's no longer a crime scene."

"A crime scene? I thought that Amanda was attacked outside the building," Dotty said in confusion.

"She was," Lee confirmed with a nod, "But since they think that I'm the one who attacked her, they don't believe that. They think the attack started inside and that I chased her outside or that she ran outside to get away from me, I'm not quite sure what they think. I just know that that damned Detective Bledsoe looked at the mess my apartment was in, the physical evidence on both me and Amanda and at my place that we...you know...and..."

"She jumped to the wrong conclusions," Dotty finished. "Well, there may be some good news there. After you left, Her superior showed up and told her that she's off the case."

"Thank God," Lee said breathing a sigh of relief. "Maybe between that and Joe doing all he can to help, we can get these charges against me dropped."

"I hope so," Dotty replied. "But until then, just because you may be barred from your apartment, that doesn't mean that you don't have a home to go to. You know that you've always been welcome in our home and I know that Amanda gave you a key a long time ago. You should go home and come back once you've gotten some sleep."

"Thanks, Dotty, but I can't. I can't rest until the guys who did this to her are behind bars."

"Hmmm, why do I get the sneaking suspicion that you plan on disobeying your boss' orders to stay off the case?" Dotty said with a pointed look. When Lee's answer was silence, she went on. "I'm not judging. If I were in a position to catch the men who hurt her, I'd do it myself, but you're not going to able to do that if you drop of sheer exhaustion. Now, go on, get some rest. I'll call you if there's any change to Amanda's condition. If not for me, do it for Amanda. She wouldn't wanting you running yourself into the ground for her."

"If I go, you're going with me. You need to rest too," Lee argued.

"No," Dotty said with a shake of her head. "I'm not leaving her side. Someone needs to be here when she wakes u-" her statement was interrupted by the loud growling of her stomach.

"No, come on," Lee said, grabbing his mother-in-law firmly by the arm and guiding her out of the room. "You need to rest and from the sounds of it, you need to eat too. Therefore, we're both going. We can pick up a pizza or something on the way so we don't have to mess with cooking."

"No, I'm not leaving her," Dotty said as she tried unsuccessfully to wriggle out of his grasp.

"Look, the hospital staff can call if there's any change in her condition just as easily as you can, right?" When Dotty nodded, he continued. "Good, then we're going. We'll grab something to eat, grab a couple hours of sleep and come right back here, okay?" When Dotty still looked at him hesitantly, glancing back to Amanda's room, then back at him, he said, "Listen, you just said that Amanda wouldn't want me running myself into the ground for her and you're absolutely right, but she wouldn't want you doing it either." When Dotty sighed, but didn't reply, he grinned at her and added, "If not for me, do it for Amanda."

"Have I ever told you that I hate having my own words thrown back in my face?"

"Well, they were wise words, so they were worth repeating," Lee said as he flashed her his most charming smile.

Dotty couldn't help the soft chuckle that escaped her, finally relaxed and said, "It's just a good thing for you that you're so cute."

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**Saturday evening, 8:00PM**

In the AV room of the police station, Detective Bledsoe, sat silently fuming. She'd been sitting there at her captain's orders since returning to the station two hours ago. When the captain finally entered the room, she said to him, "Okay, I think I have a right to know why I'm being pulled off this case when we're _this _close to nailing this guy's ass to the wall."

"Well, let's start with this," Captain Rich answered as he picked up a remote control to play the tape from earlier. "Do you recall this conversation?"

Bledsoe blanched as she saw the scene from earlier with Joe King asking her to leave the room played. "Yeah, so?"

He paused the tape for a moment. "So, maybe you recall that Mr. King very clearly requested time alone with his client to discuss his case."

"Yes."

"So, then maybe you can explain to me why the cameras were still turned on during his conversation with your suspect and why the tape of the conversation was included with the evidence that you've complied on this case." When she opened her mouth to reply, he stopped her, his voice rising as he said, "Have you even heard of something called attorney-client privilege? Do you know that even if Stetson is guilty, and that's a big "if" from what I understand, that this could blow the whole thing apart. You've given his lawyer grounds to have the whole thing thrown out of court and make this department a laughingstock. Not only that, but Stetson was clearly heard on this tape asking for his phone call which you refused, violating his civil rights, more grounds to get this thrown out. Haven't you learned anything from your years on the force? How many criminals have you seen walk because they weren't read their rights or an arrest warrant wasn't signed or evidence was obtained without a search warrant?"

"More than I can count," Bledsoe said visibly flinching at the thought. "Why do you think I care so much that we nail this guy?"

"You wanna' nail the bad guy? That's great! That's exactly what I like to hear around here, but if you really wanna' nail the bad guy, you need to first of all, make damn sure you've got the right bad guy and second, make sure you don't give the snake-in-the-grass lawyers any loopholes to let their slime ball clients wiggle through. You got me?"

"Yes, Sir," She answered.

"Now, as of three hours ago, this case is assigned to Detective Tuggy and you're to keep your hands off of it."

"Tuggy?" she said incredulously. "That fat piece of sh-" She broke off abruptly at her captain's stern glare.

"You and Tuggy never have gotten along, I know that, but there's no one better at examining every bit of evidence."

"Yeah, if he can lay off the doughnuts long enough," she replied sarcastically with a roll of her eyes.

"Are you trying for that insubordination charge too," He said warningly.

"No, Sir," She replied.

"What is it that makes you so sure that Stetson's our guy when you've got three," he waived a sheaf of papers at her, "Count 'em, three statements to the contrary and these weren't even in your case file! They had to be added after the fact!"

"I've also got a statement from his neighbor about hearing her screaming from his apartment, hearing them arguing, her telling him he got what he wanted. What else could that possibly mean? Doesn't a statement from a witness who was there at the time count for more than the statements of a suspect's _friends_?"

"We don't get to make that decision. Our job is to present the facts to the DA's office to determine if they have a case, _all_ the facts. Then it's up to a court of law to decide, but you've got this guy already tried and convicted and that's **not** how we operate! The phrase is "innocent until proven guilty" for a reason! Yes, there's some evidence to suggest that he's guilty and there's some evidence to suggest that he's not. Now, whether you like it or not, you're no longer a part of this case. Tuggy is and he's talking to the ADA in charge of this case right now. If I hear about you harassing Mr. Stetson or the victim's family again or going anywhere near this case, you'll be suspended. As it stands right now, you're just on desk duty for the next two weeks. You're not to leave your desk until it's time to clock out for the day. Now, get your ass to your desk before I change my mind about suspending you now!"


	21. Chapter 21

After leaving the hospital, weaving through DC's rush hour traffic, waiting what seemed like forever for their pizza order to be completed, Lee and Dotty finally sat in the den, the remnants of their dinner in front of them.

"So, knowing what I know now, the events of the past couple of years, finally start to make some sense," Dotty commented.

"I know," Lee said with a sigh. "I know all of the crazy things that have happened over the past four years have to have been very confusing for you."

"Four years?"Dotty questioned. "I thought that Amanda only started working for IFF or wherever it is that you really work for three years."

_Oops, _Lee thought, then shook his head and thought, _Oh, well, the cat's out of the bag now, might as well let it all out. _"Yeah," Lee answered. "It's been four years as of about two weeks ago."

"Is that why that Agent Beaman said she was up for review, because she just hit an anniversary mark?"

"No, Dotty, you see, Amanda has only been a full-time agent for a year now, but she's been my partner for the entire time she's worked there, unofficially, of course since she was just sort of...a...um...a civilian helper." He paused for a moment as he wondered just how much Dotty could handle. He took a deep breath and plunged onward, figuring she might as well know as much as he could tell her without violating his oath of secrecy. "You remember a little over a year ago when you first met Billy? Amanda and I were on the run and we had the entire agency hunting us down."

"How could I forget?" Dotty said sarcastically.

"Well, that happened because an old enemy of mine set us up to make it look as if we'd switched over to the other side, joined forces with the KGB. Amanda was so brave, so resourceful in helping to clear our names, that Dr. Smyth, who you met today, offered her a full-time job."

"She was that good, huh?" Dotty said, feeling a swell of pride in her daughter.

"God, she was amazing. She even nabbed one of the KGB's top female agents all by herself and that was before she'd officially joined the agent-training program. Man, was I proud of her. Then, a couple of months later, she had this class assignment to do a security review and that's what led her to us getting the jump on this guy, Williamson, who's the one behind hurting her."

"At the agency, you said something about it starting with her noticing how much floor was they ordered." Before Lee could answer, a thought struck her, "Oh, wait, I remember...I came home one night and she was right in there waxing the kitchen floor as if that were the most normal thing in the world to be doing on a Saturday night. She made up some silly story about you guys doing a documentary on how much wax people use on their kitchen floors. Of course, I thought it was ridiculous. I mean, why on earth would a government documentary film company even care how much was people use, but I've learned in the past couple of years that when she makes up these crazy tales, it's best not to question her too much since it's not as though she'd give me the real story anyway."

"I know she'd told you a lot of lies over the years and I'm partially to blame for that," Lee said. "I'm sor-"

"You bet your sweet butt you are!" Dotty said as it started to hit her just how many lies her daughter had told her. "You dragged her into all of this...this...craziness!" She rose from her seat and began pacing, pausing for a moment to point her finger at him. "Not only that, but you had this whole personal relationship with her that I knew nothing about! If you've been married since February, then you've obviously been involved for a lot longer than that. How long, exactly?"

"I thought you didn't want to talk about that until Amanda could join us," Lee said.

"Well, I'm over that, I want answers! How long, Lee? Tell me! How long was this love affair between you going on before I knew about it? I mean, I suspected for a while that she was involved with someone at the office before I ever met you. Has it been going on from the beginning? Is that why she ended things with Dean McGuire?"

"Not from the beginning, no," Lee answered. "Although, looking back on it, there was always this crazy attraction between us from the start. It wasn't until about two years later though that I was ready to admit to myself that she was the only one for me, and I asked her out for the first time then. It wasn't until another year had passed though that I told her that I loved her. After three years of trying to hide how I felt about her, it was only a little over a month after that that I asked her to marry me. That was right after I met you face to face for the first time."

"God," Dotty said as she sank back down onto the couch and buried her face in her hands.

Lee reached for her hands and gently nudged on them to get her to face him. When she turned her attention back to him, he said, "What do you want me to do here, Dotty? We can't go back and change it or undo what we did." When Dotty just glared at him, he said, "Look, nothing's really changed here. I'm still the same guy who's crazy about your daughter. The only difference is that now you know all the secrets that we've been keeping from you."

"No, Lee," Dotty finally replied. "You're not the same man, at least not the man that I thought you were. How you could encourage my daughter to lie to me for years is beyond me."

"I get that you're hurt, Dotty, but one thing that hasn't changed is that I love Amanda with all my heart. I love Phillip; I love Jamie...and you. You've been the closest thing that I've had to a mother since I was five years old." He smiled warmly at her.

"Don't you try to butter me up with that charming smile of yours, Lee Stetson; I'm so angry, so angry with both of you right now that I..."

"You what?" Lee probed.

"God, I don't know. I just don't know. On one hand, I'm absolutely thrilled to know that you and Amanda are married, that you make her happy and that she's not going to be sad or lonely anymore. But on the other hand, the way you two went about it, all the lying and sneaking, I just...I just...I hate it."

"I know. I do too. Amanda and I both do. That's what we were fighting about last night just before she was attacked. That's part of why the cops thought that I hurt her. My next-door neighbor heard us arguing and... God, all I wanted was one morning that I could wake up next to my wife; one night to fall asleep with her in my arms. Being married, but not really being together has been tearing us both apart."

"I imagine it has been, but really you two have no one to blame but yourselves for that," Dotty said pointedly.

"Listen, rehashing this over and over again isn't going to do either of us any good,"  
Lee said as he rose from his seat, picked up the empty pizza box and walked into the kitchen to discard it. After doing so, he leaned against the counter facing toward the den and said to his mother-in-law's back, "So, I suggest that we stick to the original plan and try to get some rest."

Dotty sighed once again, rose from the couch and replied, "You're right. Of course, you're right. I...um...I just have to figure out how to accept this and move on."

"Yeah," Lee said as he crossed the staircase landing toward the front door.

"Where are you going?"Dotty queried as she gazed at him from the other side of the landing.

"I...um...I've got a suitcase in my car. I'm just going to go get it, so I'll have something to change into later."

"While you're doing that, I guess I'll just finish cleaning this up," Dotty said with a gesture toward the wine glasses they'd been drinking from. Dotty was just finishing up in the kitchen when Lee returned a few minutes later and set his suitcase down on the sofa. She switched off the kitchen light, nodded toward the suitcase and said, "Were you planning on taking a trip?"

"Hmmm?" Lee said, a little startled until it hit him why she was asking. "Oh, you mean this? No, I just always keep a bag packed because in this job, you just never know when you might need it. Sometimes this job takes us out of town with no notice."

"Oh, right," Dotty said as she reflected back on how many times her daughter had told her at the last minute that she was needed at the office or had to leave town for work unexpectedly.

"We...uh...we should turn in," Lee said awkwardly.

"Yeah, you're right," Dotty said as she headed for the stairs but paused as she realized Lee wasn't moving. She nodded toward the couch and said, "You're not planning on sleeping down here, are you?"

"Yeah, why?" Lee said with a shrug.

"No, absolutely not! You'll never get proper rest down here," Dotty said as she grabbed his suitcase and hurried up the stairs with it.

"Dotty," Lee said as he followed her and caught up with her just as she reached Amanda's room.

"You'll be much more comfortable in here," Dotty said as she dropped his suitcase on the bed. She then added with a grin, "Besides, it's not as if you haven't slept in my daughter's bed before," before exiting for her own room.

Lee shook his head, chuckling slightly at his mother-in-law's revolving moods today. He supposed he couldn't blame her. She'd had a lot dumped on her in less than a day. He just hoped that he and Amanda would be able to make it right with her.


	22. Chapter 22

While Lee and Dotty were having their heated discussion, another one was brewing at the police station. Joe King sat in the conference room with Detective Tuggy and the ADA working Lee's case, arguing Lee's innocence. He dropped the photos he'd taken at Lee's apartment in front of the pair and said angrily, "Look, Ms. Gardner, you've got all the evidence that you need right here that my client is married to the victim," cringing a little as he said it at the thought of referring to them so casually as if he didn't know both of them pretty well. He was trying to detach his emotions from this case, but it was difficult for him to refer to the mother of his children as simply "the victim." He knew that in order to be effective on this case, it had to be done. He had to keep his personal feelings out of it. He sighed and plunged on, "They've been married for eight months as a matter of fact. You've also got three statements from three different people that he wouldn't hurt her and in two of those from their co-workers that he's gone out of his way to protect her from harm for four years. I also interviewed both of his neighbors who stated that they've often seen her coming and going from his apartment, many times spending the night. You've got her clothes in his closet, two drawers of the dresser, her favorite shampoo and perfume in his bathroom...I've got more than enough here to get these charges dropped."

"Mr. King, you make excellent points," ADA Gardner replied, "But I've also got physical evidence that supports the charges against him, a witness who heard her screaming, not once, but twice. This same witness indicated that he saw her trying to get away from him, then there are the statements from the officers who arrived on the scene to find your client standing over her unconscious body..."

"And he told Detective Bledsoe about the men he'd seen attacking her," Joe interrupted.

"True, but we have no corroborating evidence to support that," She countered. "We only have his word that there were other parties involved. Aside from the fact that he was intoxicated leading to a very vague description of the men he says were there."

"You seriously think you still have a case against Lee Stetson even with all the evidence to the contrary, even knowing that Detective Bledsoe purposely withheld evidence and did a shoddy job of interviewing witnesses?"

"Look, I get where you're coming from, Mr. King, but there is enough evidence to present in court, including your client admitting that he had sex with her."

"But not against her will," Joe argued.

"We don't know that without hearing it straight from her and she's in no position to confirm or deny what he's telling us," Gardner replied.

"Aside from the other physical evidence, our forensic team also found his prints all over her car," Tuggy said. "They found several sets of prints, but there are so many, they're having a little trouble distinguishing one set from another."

"So, there could be prints from her real attacker," Joe suggested.

"Could be," Tuggy answered. "Right now, we just don't know."

"But you're willing to see Lee Stetson convicted based on circumstantial evidence?" Joe said incredulously.

"Come on, Buddy, you know how this works," Tuggy said. "We present the evidence and let the court decide whether or not there's enough there to indict your boy and proceed to trial."

"Fine," Joe said as he began gathering up his files. "Then, I guess I'll see you again in court on Monday." He then glared at the ADA and added, "You'd better be prepared for one hell of a battle," then left the room. As he walked out, he noticed Detective Bledsoe sitting her desk obviously fuming at having her case taken from her. He approached her, pulled a document from his briefcase, and slapped it on her desk in front of her.

"What the hell is this," She said as she opened the folded legal document, her eyes widening when she saw that it was a subpoena. "Maybe you haven't heard, but I'm off this case, thanks to you. And not only that, but my case has been handed off to a raging misogynist who would probably be more than happy to believe Lee Stetson's claims that she "wanted it."

"Oh, I well aware of that, just as I'm aware that your Captain is initiating an internal affairs investigation on you."

"What," she said, her eyes flaring in anger.

"Well, you've got an unusually high conviction rate for violent crimes and since we both know that you tried to suppress evidence in this case, it got me seriously wondering if you hadn't done it in the past, just to get a conviction, makes me wonder how many innocent people are in prison because of you. As for this," Joe said with a sneer as he pointed at the subpoena, "I want to hear you try to justify your actions in front of the judge and explain for the record why you're trying to railroad Lee Stetson for a crime he didn't commit." He then smiled at her and said, "Have a nice night," before exiting the police station.

Bledsoe blanched as she looked over the document and stared at it until she saw Detective Tuggy emerging from the conference room with the ADA. She approached him and said, "Well?"

"Well, what?" Tuggy said with a smug smile.

"Is she going for it?" Bledsoe asked with a gesture to the departing Gardner.

"What's it to you? It's not your case anymore. It's mine," Tuggy replied as he made his way to his own desk.

"I did all the work on it for you," she argued as she followed him.

"Listen, Sister, the "work" you did on this case may have given his lawyer all the grounds he needs to let Stetson walk. You got your panties so in a bunch over this case, just like you do every case that you didn't look at the big picture, that there may be someone else out there who attacked the King woman, just like he said there was."

"But there's no evidence of that," Bledsoe argued.

"Not yet," Tuggy said. "But there might be once the forensic boys finish analyzing the prints taken from her car. I'm thinking that by the time this is all done, you may be looking for a new job. Now, if you don't mind, I've got work to do." He then turned his back on her, which only infuriated her more.

"Listen, you fat fuck," Bledsoe said. "Just because you're a woman-hating SOB, that doesn't mean that you can mold the evidence to your liking to set this guy loose."

"Look, I'm not the one molding evidence around here and where do you get off calling me a woman-hater. You want my opinion, your problem is that you're a man-hater and that's why you're so damn determined to see Stetson fry. Now, get off my ass before I get Rich in here to _make_ you go away."

"You're gonna' pay for this," she said as she stomped back to her desk, threw herself into her chair and began to wonder exactly what Joe King was going to throw at her in court.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

**Sunday Morning, 4:00AM **

Lee slept fitfully as the memories of witnessing Amanda's attack, watching her slump to the ground and being helpless to stop it, played again and again in his mind. He was startled awake by the memory of hearing her screaming, of her collapsing in his arms, her last words to him, "I'm sorry," ringing through his hears. He hoped to God that those wouldn't be the last words he ever heard from her. He flung himself from her bed, not longer able to stand lying there being constantly assailed by her scent on the pillow. He padded barefoot down the stairs and headed straight into the kitchen to the coffee pot, not bothering to turn on the light as he blindly reached for the coffee can. As he filled the machine and set it to brew, he was startled by the light being flipped on and a voice behind him, saying, "Can't sleep?"

He turned to find his mother-in-law standing there looking as wide-awake as he was. "You are way too good at that," Lee said shaking his head with a soft chuckle.

"Well, I'm a mother. You learn to be a little sneaky," Dotty said as she slipped past him to the cupboard and pulled out two coffee cups. "I...um...I heard you yelling in your sleep. Bad dream?"

"You could say that," Lee said evasively. When Dotty then made her way to the refrigerator and pulled out the cream for his coffee, but then also began piling other items on the island counter behind her, he said, "What are you doing?"

"Well, since we're both up and you've already started making coffee, I thought I'd make us some breakfast," Dotty said.

"That's not necessary, Dotty," Lee said. "It's four AM. Just because I can't sleep, that doesn't mean you shouldn't."

"I can't really sleep either," Dotty admitted as she busied herself at the counter, cracking eggs into a bowl. "I just kept seeing Amanda lying in that bed, so pale...so..."

"I know," Lee said softly.

"Did you get any sleep at all?" she asked him as she began to whip the eggs into frenzy, taking her frustration out on them.

"I got a couple of hours. You?" He asked in concern as he watched her at work.

"About the same," she said with a sigh.

Lee turned to the coffee pot, poured them each a cup, "You take both cream and sugar, right?" he said.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I do," Dotty said with a slight smile, touched that he remembered. As Lee fixed their coffee cups and handed one to her, she said, "I want to apologize for the way that I spoke to you last night. You know, you really are a member of this family. You have been for a long time."

"Yeah, not that any of you knew it," Lee muttered.

"That doesn't matter," Dotty replied as she turned back to her task. "It doesn't matter that none of us knew that you were married. We all accepted you into this family many months ago. We were just waiting for you two to make it official. Imagine my surprise to find that you already had."

"Dotty, I'm sor-"

"Don't, Lee," Dotty interrupted. "Don't apologize anymore. I understand why you did what you did. I...I just have to figure out how to get over the hurt on my own. I know that you and Amanda love each other very much and I know you'd do anything for her. That's what matters to me. Let's just get some breakfast and then we'll go see our girl, okay?"

"Yeah, okay," Lee said with a nod.


	23. Chapter 23

**Sunday Morning, 6:00AM **

At the house on Maplewood, Lee and Dotty had had a nice long chat over breakfast with Lee answering what questions he could to his mother-in-law and politely declining to answer her questions when those that she asked touched on classified materials, thrilled that she, for the moment at least, had seemed to get over her initial anger. He was so thrilled; in fact, that he hadn't even attempted to argue when she had insisted on him eating breakfast, something that Amanda knew all too well that he wasn't normally inclined to do. He had even offered to help Dotty clean up the kitchen and they'd chatted while doing so, both trying to keep the conversation light and off of the darker subject matter, such as the secrecy of their married, how dangerous their job was, the charges hanging over his head and both of their underlying worry about Amanda.

After finishing cleaning up from their breakfast, Dotty had headed for her room and Lee now stood in his wife's bedroom getting dressed for the day, preparing to go back to the hospital to be with his wife and check on her progress. He paused in his task as he reflected back on his mother-in-law's parting shot to him the prior evening about having spent nights in her daughter's bed before. He glanced over at the still-rumpled bedding and recalled a handful of nights that he and Amanda had spent there, wrapped in each other's arms amid tangled sheets and smiled slightly at the memories. He chuckled softly as he recalled that those few times that he'd had the nerve to sneak in through her bedroom window had also led to Dotty finding bits of his clothing mixed up with hers when he'd had to make a hasty getaway to avoid being caught. His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. "Come on in," Lee said as he reached for his shirt.

The door opened and Dotty entered, but then said, "Sorry," at seeing his shirtless state and started to exit.

"No, Dotty, it's okay," Lee said as he slid his arms into the sleeves of his shirt. "I'm mostly decent."

Dotty's eyes fell on the scar just below his ribs and said, "That must have hurt," instantly bringing down the lighter mood they'd tried to create earlier.

Lee looked down for a moment and said, "Yeah," before covering the scar by fastening the buttons on his shirt. "Hazards of the job. I'm one of the lucky ones. Some agents out there don't live long enough to have scars." As seeing a glimmer of fear in his mother-in-law's eyes, he said, "I'm sorry. I don't mean to scare you by saying that. It's just a grim fact of life in this business." He quickly tucked his shirt in and then turned from her to make the bed in an attempt to distract himself from her piercing gaze.

"How did it happen?" Dotty asked. "Or is that one of the things that you can't talk about?"

Lee was silent for a moment until he had finished straightening the bed, then sank down on its surface and reached for his shoes. "I can tell you the basics. We were on a case and I was talking to a potential suspect and caught the stray end of a bullet meant for him. It happened just a couple of days before our wedding." Lee slipped on his shoes and sighed. "Then Amanda was shot the day after. With what's going on now, I'm starting to feel like we just can't catch a break, Amanda and me. Maybe this is fate's way of telling us it's just not meant to be, that we're not meant to be happy together."

"You listen to me, Lee Stetson, and listen good," Dotty said sternly. "That is utter nonsense! If fate was trying to tell you you're not meant to be together or be happy then why let you get together at all. Maybe this is just fate's way of intervening and getting all of your secrets out in the open since this is obviously something that the two of you have been struggling with."

Lee sighed again and shook his head as he rose to his feet. Finally he faced Dotty and said, "Maybe you're right. I don't know what to think anymore. I just know that this whole thing...our marriage...it's just been a mistake from the start. We've both been ready for it to end for months and put ourselves out of our misery, just neither one of us had the courage to do it."

"What?"Dotty said her eyes wide with shock.

Lee at seeing the look on her face instantly realized that she'd misunderstood, "Dotty, I didn't mean it like that. I didn't mean to suggest that our marriage was a mistake, just the secrecy of it. That's what we wanted to end, not our marriage itself."

"Oh, thank goodness," Dotty said breathing a sigh of relief.

"We should never have hidden our marriage the way that we did. We...we were both just in such a panic over what could happen if one of our enemies...but I guess it happened anyway, just not the way we imagined that it would." He ran a hand through his hair and said, "God, I'd give anything right now to go back and undo it, do things the right way, celebrate our marriage the way a couple should instead of hiding it, have a real wedding, live together openly as husband and wife."

"You still could, you know," Dotty suggested. "Once Amanda gets better, you could always have the public ceremony for family and friends. In fact, the more that I think about it, the more that I think it would be best not to let the boys know that you're married, that you've been lying to them all this time."

"No, Dotty, they should know. I want them to know for sure how I feel about them, about their mother-"

"I know you do, but I think it's best if we let Amanda recover, then tell them that you're engaged and plan a new wedding. They've been expecting and engagement announcement any day now already. Now, if I've done my math right, you're first wedding anniversary is only four months away." Lee nodded in confirmation. "So, I don't see why you have another wedding then for the boys' benefit and it would be a way to celebrate your anniversary and also give you two the honeymoon that you never got to have."

"That sounds great, Dotty, but I don't know how comfortable I feel with lying to the boys. I just...just want to be honest with them."

"No," Dotty said with a shake of her head. "I know my grandchildren and everything they've been through with their father and how long it took them to trust you because of it. Now that you've earned their trust, you can't shatter it by telling them that you've been keeping this huge secret from them. They'd never trust you again, especially Phillip."

"Phillip?" Lee said with a confused look on his face as he recalled vividly what a difficult time he'd had getting Jamie to trust him. "Don't you think Jamie would have a harder time with it?"

"No, not at all. As harsh as it sounds, Jamie has become very cynical, so he just expects people he loves to disappoint him, but Phillip...he adores you, looks up to you. He has from the beginning. Almost thinks of you as his hero. How do you think that will look to him to have that image of his hero tarnished?"

"I see your point," Lee said, "But you're forgetting one thing. It's fine to talk about how to handle things in the future, but ultimately that decision needs to include Amanda and right now, she's..."

"I know," Dotty said. "We should go see her."

"Yeah," Lee said as the two of them exited the room together, down the stairs and through the front door. Lee quickly opened the passenger door of the 'vette for Dotty, closing it behind her before getting into the driver's side. As he backed out of the driveway, he spotted a black van in his rearview mirror, eerily similar to the one he'd seen outside his apartment when Amanda was attacked. "Dotty," He said apprehensively. "Don't turn around and draw attention to us. Just glance in the mirror." When she did so, he said, "Do you remember seeing that van there before? Is it maybe one of the neighbors'?"

"No," Dotty said. "None of our neighbors drive anything like that."

"That's what I was afraid of," Lee said.

"I saw it there this morning when I got up. I just thought it belonged to the agency. Mr. Melrose did say he was going to have someone watching the house."

"No, ours would never be that obvious," Lee said as he finished pulling the 'vette onto Maplewood and put the car in drive. "I need you to do me a favor. Reach into the glove box and hand me the gun that's in it, but keep in low. I don't want them seeing what's going on."

"Gun?" she said an edge of panic in her voice.

"I'm sorry to make you do this, Dotty, but I may need it. The one I normally carry is at my place and I can't go back there," He explained as he once again mentally cursed himself for not grabbing it when he'd heard Amanda screaming.

Dotty nodded and said, "I understand," as she followed his instructions with shaking hands surreptitiously sliding the 9MM in its belt holster across the console to Lee.

Lee clipped the holster at his left hip where he'd have easy access to it, his eyes checking the mirror again to find the van was now slowly following behind them. "Fasten your seatbelt, Dotty. We may be in for a rough ride."


	24. Chapter 24

Dotty sat nervously in her seat as she watched Lee expertly navigate the familiar suburban streets, glancing occasionally in the outside mirror at the ominous-looking black can behind them. Wringing her hands together, she asked, "Is that...Um...I mean, are these..." she sighed as she tried to focus her thoughts. "Is the man driving that van...is he...is he the one who hurt Amanda?"

"Hard to tell," Lee said. "They're a little too far away to get a good look at the driver. They're playing it smart, but it sure as hell looks like the same van that I saw outside my place the night she was jumped. I just wish like hell that I'd been able to get a plate number, then I'd know for sure."

"Is there any way that you can find out for sure?" she asked him.

"Not without putting you at risk," Lee answered tersely, as he tried to keep his eyes on the road ahead while still glancing in the mirror from time to time at the van behind him as he pulled the vette on to the Key Bridge, "And Amanda would kill me if I let anything happen to you."

Dotty took a shuddering breath as she tried to summon up her courage and said, "Lee, I'll be fine. Just tell me what I need to do and I'll do it."

"No, Dotty, I can't take that risk. It's best right now to just play it safe until I can figure out what these guys are up to."

"Lee," Dotty said fixing him with a stern glare. "If these people behind us are the ones who hurt my daughter, your wife, isn't it your duty as an agent, as her partner and as her husband to make sure that they don't get away with it?"

Lee sighed and said, "Yes, Dotty, it is," as he recalled his promise to his unconscious wife that he'd make her attackers pay, his lust for vengeance rising within him again at his mother-in-law's words. He took a deep breath to try to calm himself and said, "But that doesn't mean that I have to endanger your life to do it."

"Oh, well, then if that's what you're worried about, maybe you're just not as good as Mr. Melrose said you were," she said in a speculative voice.

"What? I'll have you know that I'm considered to be the best in the business," Lee fired back.

"Hmm, then why should you be worried about endangering me. If you're so good, shouldn't you be able to keep me safe?" she challenged him. "If you just tell me what to do, I can handle it. I mean, after all, I dealt just fine with being held hostage by those horrible men who tried to hurt Dr. Zernov, didn't I?"

"Yeah, I guess you did," Lee said, "And you kept all of that to yourself too, just like Billy told you too."

"Why doesn't it surprise me that you know all about that," Dotty said.

Lee couldn't help chuckling a little at realizing he'd been had. "All right, you win," He said, "Listen to me very closely. I can't do anything until we get off the bridge. I've learned from experience that this is a bad place to get involved in a car chase, but the second we're off the bridge, I want you to hang on tight and keep your head down in case they start shooting. You got me?"

"Yeah, I get you," Dotty said with a firm nod.

He glanced sideways at her for just a brief moment and the determined look on her face, a look that he'd seen on Amanda's more times than he could count and it struck him in that moment that his life must have inherited her incredible bravery and stubbornness from her mother. He turned his eyes back to the road and said, "Okay, here we go," As he stepped on the gas and made a sharp left when exiting the bridge. As expected, the van also picked up speed and cut across oncoming traffic just as he had, a blaring of horns left in their wake by Sunday morning churchgoers. With a loud squealing of tires, he made another quick left, and another, forcing the van to teeter precariously as the driver made a futile attempt to keep up. "That's it, Buddy, just keep it up," he muttered as he made the same maneuver again, putting on even more speed around the next corner crowing triumphantly at seeing the van trying to take the turn as fast as he had, jumping the curb and sliding down the street on its side.

"Yes!" he shouted as he slammed on the brakes and whipped the car around to face their pursuers. As he exited the vehicle and drew his gun, he shouted to Dotty, "Get on the phone to Billy and tell him where we are, but keep your head down." He then crouched behind the door for cover as he pointed his weapon at the overturned van. "It's over, McKay! You're not getting away this time!" He shouted in the direction of the van.

"Dotty, stay down!" Lee shouted ducking quickly as the response was a hail of bullets their direction. When the noise of gunfire ceased and was replaced by the sound of an empty chamber, he raised his head up enough to see that the blond man that he'd shot last year had been the one doing the firing through the open passenger-side window of the overturned van. Not wanting to give the thug time to reload when he saw him reaching for another clip, he fired one round straight into the man's chest He smiled in satisfaction as he watched the man slump back inside the van.

With his gun still trained on the van, he glanced cautiously over at his mother-in-law who was bent over the console of the 'vette speaking into the phone in a hushed tone. He breathed a sigh of relief at seeing that she was all right. "Dotty, you okay?" When she nodded, he smiled at her and said, "Did you get Billy?"

"Y-y-yes," she stammered nervously and held the receiver his direction."He...Um...he wants to talk to you."

Lee took the phone from her in one hand, the other still maintaining a tight grip on the grip of his gun, he turned his attention back to the van in case the guy he'd shot wasn't alone. He quickly explained to Billy what had happened then hung up the phone. "Stay put," he said to Dotty as he cautiously approached the van, peering through its windshield to see the blond man crumpled inside, along with his companion from last year, whom he'd also shot at that time, neither moving, the other appearing to have been injured when the van had toppled over. From the way it looked, the blonde had stood on his unconscious friend's body to shoot at them. There was no sign of McKay or Williamson, though. "Damn," he swore as he made his way back to his own car, holstered his weapon, and reached for the phone again to make sure than an ambulance was on its way.

Dotty, finally sitting up, waited until Lee hung up the phone for a second time and asked in a trembling voice, "Is...uh...is that man dead?"

Lee sighed. "I don't know. I didn't get close enough to find out in case he's still semi-conscious. I know better than to get caught in a tight spot like that with only one way out," he explained.

"Maybe that's why you're thought of as the best in the business," Dotty said feeling calmer now that the shooting had stopped.

"Maybe," Lee said as he still kept a close watch on the van for any signs of movement while they waiting for help to arrive.

"So, I have a question," Dotty said.

"Another one," Lee teased good-naturedly.

Dotty rolled her eyes and proceeded, "Is this...stuff like this..."she said with a gesture to the mess left in the street by the wreck, "Is this why you drive a sports car?"

Lee chuckled and said, "Well, it certainly helps in situations like this to have a car that can outmaneuver vehicles like that."

"Is that how Amanda's car keeps getting destroyed? Because it can't?"

"I don't know," Lee said. "It's held together pretty well a few times, especially with Amanda behind the wheel."

"Really?" Dotty asked in surprise as she thought of all the times since Amanda had been working for IFF that her car had been damaged. "I find that hard to believe with as many times as she's come home with her car in a thousand pieces."

"Well, for every time that that's happened, there are at least at a half-dozen more that it's barely been scratched. Amanda's really good at evading the enemy in a car chase. Sometimes, though, in a high-speed pursuit, wrecks like this are unavoidable."

"But this one," Dotty said with a nod toward the wreckage. "This one you intended to happen, didn't you? You wanted them to wreck that van."

Lee looked at Dotty and smiled at her perceptiveness. "In this case, yes," he answered honestly. "If they'd started shooting from behind us, we wouldn't have stood much of a chance. There's no way that I could have fired back without risking wrecking us and like I said, my wife would kill me if I let you get hurt." He glanced worriedly at the bullet holes in his windshield, a moment of panic gripping him as his mind flashed back to that day in Las Palmas and the single bullet hole in the windshield of their rental car. He quickly turned and looked Dotty over and said, "You're...Um...You're _not_ hurt, are you?"

"No, Lee, I'm fine," Dotty reassured him. "I did just what you told me to do, but I have to admit that I have never been so terrified in my life."

"I know," Lee said with a nod. "I know it was scary, but you were a real trouper. I can see where Amanda came by her bravery."

"Bravery, huh?" Dotty said with a slight smile. "I didn't feel so brave a few minutes ago when there were bullets sailing over my head."

"But you held it together and you didn't panic," Lee said. "That's a good thing."

"Of course," Dotty said with a nod. "I have to be there with Amanda when she wakes up. I couldn't do that if I'd panicked and done something stupid to get myself killed." She paused for a moment and then asked, "Don't you get scared. I mean, you were out there in the open and that man...that man could have killed you."

"I learned how to duck quickly pretty early on in this job," Lee said with a shrug, "But that doesn't mean that I don't get scared. I do, all the time, but I've learned that you can let fear beat you, can't let it stop you from doing what needs to be done. Amanda knows that too. There have been so many times in the past four years that I've seen her utterly terrified, yet she still kept on fighting and never gave up. She's never-" His voice became choked with emotion at the thought of her still lying unconscious and he was unable to go on.

"She's not going to give up now, Lee." Dotty said. "It's like I said in California. I've never seen my daughter give up on anything that was important and she won't give up this time either. I believe that and you need to believe it too."

"I want to, Dotty," He said in a hoarse whisper. "I want to believe it so badly. I can't lose her."

Dotty reached across the console to embrace her son-in-law as well as she could with the console between them sensing that he needed some reassurance. "You won't. She has a family to come back to. That will keep her fighting, I guarantee it."

Their brief moment of respite was interrupted by the sound of sirens. "Thanks, Dotty, but I...Um...I need to deal with this." He nodded toward the sound of the sirens, released his mother-in-law, pasted on his business face and exited the car, extracting his ID from his pocket as he did so preparing to deal with the fallout of the car chase.

Dotty watched in awe as she saw Lee's facial expression change from one of sadness and worry to that of a hardened professional agent and wondered how he did it and for that matter how her daughter, who'd always been so open with her feelings was able to do the same.


	25. Chapter 25

**Sunday Morning, 8:00AM **

Two hours later, after dropping Dotty off at the hospital and dealing with the metro cops who'd arrived at the scene of the accident, Lee was back at the agency, pacing furiously, his frustration growing. "Damn it!" he growled running both hands through his hair. "I wasn't trying to kill the son of a bitch, just stop him! I was hoping we'd be able to get some information out of them!"

"Well, it's too late to do anything about it now," Francine said. "They're both dead and you can't get anything out of a corpse." Lee glared at Francine. "Lee, look, I'm not trying to be insensitive here, but it's a fact. It's also a fact that you've got bigger things to worry about and it's a fact that you were supposed to stay away from this case. Another fact for you, Dr. Smyth ordered us to stay off Amanda's case too and only work it from the escaped prisoner angle."

"Yeah, well, while you're spouting facts, my wife is lying comatose because of these bastards while I'm being accused of putting her there and I can't do a damn thing about any of it! I can't help her! I can't get these charges of my back and worst of all, I can't even get to the guys who really put her there!"

"Leave that to us, Lee," Billy said as he entered the room. "We've still got a couple of leads."

"Well, leads aren't good enough! I want McKay! I want Williamson! They have to pay for what they did to Amanda!"

"And they will, but you're not going to do any good if you tangle with the local PD the way you did today," Billy said barely holding his anger in check.

"Is it my fault that they got to the scene before the agency did?"

"In a way, it is," Billy said bluntly. "You should have called me sooner. The second that you even _suspected_ that it was the same guys, you should have called. Instead, you led them on a high-speed chase through the streets of DC, with a civilian in the car no less! If you'd thought with your head for once instead of your heart, one or both of those guys might still be alive and we could be questioning them instead of notifying their next of kin. As of this moment, I want you out of here!"

"What are you saying, Billy?" Lee said a look of pure fury etched on his face.

"You're suspended, indefinitely. I don't want you setting foot in this agency again until this case is closed, you got me?"

"Billy, come on!" Lee protested.

"No arguments, Scarecrow! Now, Joe King is upstairs waiting for you. He needs to talk to you about your defense. That's what you should be worrying about right now. Now, go!"

"Fine!' Lee said as he yanked open the door to Billy's office and stormed out.

"Don't you think that was a little harsh?" Francine said worriedly.

"Francine, don't," Billy said. "You know that I have a job to do and he..." He sighed and sank down into his chair. "I can't have him going off half-cocked and jeopardizing this case. Not with Dr. Smyth breathing down my neck."

"But you know Lee. You know that he's likely to just do it anyway, suspended or not."

"That's why I called Joe. He'll keep him busy for a while," Billy said.

"I hope you're right," Francine said the concern evident in her voice as she glanced out the window just as Lee exited the bullpen and turned the corner out of sight.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Dotty sat by Amanda's bedside, gripping her hand tightly as she recounted the tale of her adventure with Lee. "You'd have been so proud of him, the way he handled that van that was following us, the way he went out of his way to make sure that I was safe. I wonder, does he do the same with you when you're...I don't know the right words...chasing the bad guys together?" As she gazed at her unconscious daughter, it hit her just how much she'd kept from her and her anger flared again. "Damn it, Amanda!' she swore, something the rarely did, but this time she couldn't help herself. "Why did you have to be so secretive? I get the spy stuff and why you kept it hidden, but why your marriage? Why?! Lee keeps trying to get me to understand, saying you were trying to protect the boys, but it just...it just makes no sense! Wouldn't they have been more protected if you were all living together as a family should?"

She released her daughter's hand and began pacing back and forth alongside the bed. "And what about protecting you?" She paused in her pacing to look at her daughter gesturing wildly at her stillness. "I mean, look at you! Look at the shape you're in! I completely understand you and Lee wanting to spend some alone time together, but my God, Amanda, why couldn't you have been doing that at home together all this time? I'd have been perfectly willing to make myself scarce or to look after the boys for you to give you that time together if only...if only you'd just confided in me."

Dotty sat back down in the chair as tears slid down her face. "Why couldn't you have just told me the truth? If you had...if you had, you might not be here now fighting for your life. You wouldn't have been leaving Lee's home in the middle of the night and those men...those men who did this to you might never have hurt you." She sighed as she picked up her daughter's limp hand once again, squeezing it tightly in her own and said, "Lee is just beside himself. You should see the poor man. He blames himself, you know, just like he blamed himself for you shooting back in February." She shook her head and said, "You were already married to him then and even though you almost died neither of you even thought to tell me the truth. I don't know how to handle this, Amanda, but I do know one thing. Lee loves you with all his heart."

"Lee," Amanda whispered.

"Amanda?" Dotty said hopefully. "Amanda, Darling, can you hear me?" She squeezed her hand, hoping that she'd squeeze it back, but she found excitement flooding through her when there was a slight response. She exited the room and hurried to the ICU nurse's station, quickly getting the nurse's attention. "Someone needs to check on my daughter now," she demanded.

"Mrs. West, what is it?" the nurse questioned.

"She was talking," Dotty explained. "She...um...she...I think she might be coming out of this."

"It's not that uncommon for coma patients to mumble or whisper in their sleep," the nurse said. "That doesn't necessarily mean that there's any improvement in her condition."

"I don't care if it's uncommon or not. Someone needs to check!"

At her shouting, the physician who'd been caring for Amanda came running and asked, "What is it?"

"My daughter...she...was talking...and she...she squeezed my hand...please can you...can you check on her?" When the doctor looked alarmed, Dotty said, "What is it?"

"I'll check on her," he said. "Just...just wait here, okay?" He then made his way into Amanda's room, Dotty hot on his heels.

"No, I will not wait here! I want to know what's going on with my daughter and I want to know now!'

"Mrs. West, there's nothing that you can do for her," the doctor said just as a nurse entered behind them and she began to check Amanda's vital signs. "Just let me take care of her."

"I'm not leaving this room," Dotty said and stubbornly folded her arms across her chest.

"Fine, but steer clear and let us work," he replied as he began to unwrap the bandages from Amanda's head.

"Lee," Amanda whispered again wincing slightly as the doctor gently lifted her head from the pillow to examine her head wound.

"See, there," Dotty said. "She did it again."

"I know, Mrs. West," he said. "This isn't the first time." He then turned to the nurse and said, "Call down to radiology. We're gonna' need another CAT scan to see if we need to put her out again."

The nurse nodded and left the room while Dotty looked at the doctor questioningly and said, "CAT scan? Put her out? What do you mean?"

"Come on, Mrs. West," he said as he gently took her by the arm and urged her to sit down. "Didn't the ER doctor tell you what we've been doing for her since she was moved to Intensive Care?"

"No," Dotty replied. "He...um...he said that there wasn't much that could be done, that her body just needed time to heal...something about severe head trauma."

"That's true," the doctor confirmed with a nod. "With trauma like this, especially with an open wound such as the one she came in with, we try to do everything we can to keep the risk of infection down, keep the chances of brain swelling down to a minimum. I want another CAT scan on her to determined if the swelling in her brain has decreased at all."

"Okay, but I still don't understand what you meant by putting her out," Dotty said in confusion.

"Mrs. West, your daughter has been drifting in and out of consciousness since she was moved up here. She even tried to sit up and get out of bed once, late last night. We've been giving her anesthetics to keep her under, trying to prevent her from moving around too much and increasing the swelling in her brain. Not only that, but it constricts the blood vessels in the brain to help keep the swelling down."

"Doctor, are you telling me that you've purposely been keeping her out of it?" Dotty asked incredulously her eyes wide with shock.

"Yes, Mrs. West," the doctor replied with a glance at Amanda. "This is a medically-induced coma."


	26. Chapter 26

After a very tense ride in Joe King's car, Lee sat in the man's office with him while they went over his case, Joe peppering him with questions as the prosecutor would to prepare him for his defense, Lee getting more irritated by the minute at the nature of the questions.

"So, Mr. Stetson," Joe said, "You say that Mrs King was a willing participant in your relation with her, yet your neighbor insists that he heard her screaming coming from inside your apartment. Can you explain that?"

"What? You've never heard a woman screaming in the throes of passion before?" Lee replied flippantly.

"Damn it, Lee, would you take this seriously? I'm fighting for you here! Don't you get how serious this is?"

"Yeah, I get how serious this is, believe me, but I don't see how this is going to help."

"These are the exact kind of questions the ADA is going to ask. They're going to get very personal and probably try to expose every bit of your private life with Amanda to make their case." He then shifted back to prosecutor mode and began again, rephrasing, "Now, Mr. Stetson, can you describe for me the events that led up to the screaming that was heard coming from your apartment?"

Lee shook his head and said, "God, you're really loving this, aren't you?"

"No, I'm not! In fact, I hate it! Do you think I want to hear all the details of your sex life with the mother of my children? Far from it! What you don't seem to get though is that this is exactly how a prosecutor works. They are going to drag out every bit of dirty laundry that they can. They're going to make you recount bit by bit exactly what happened that night and poke and prod for details of your private life. Don't you get that? How's it going to look in court if you're not prepared to answer those questions?"

"So, what? you want a play-by-play? How I kissed her, how I touched her, how she begged me to-" He stood and began pacing, running his hands through his hair. "No, I can't. I can't do this! That stuff is private!"

"I'm sorry, Lee, but it's not. Not anymore. It can't be when your private life is what led to this to start with and all of that is going to be out there for everyone to see if you choose to testify in your own defense."

"Maybe I shouldn't then," Lee suggested.

"Then maybe you should find yourself another attorney," Joe said. "I've tried to help you the best that I can, but if you're not willing to help yourself, then there's nothing more that I can do for you."

"Yeah, maybe I should," Lee said as he stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him. He took a deep breath and stood still for a moment in the empty outer office where Joe's secretary normally sat, braced himself and then walked back into Joe's private office. "All right, look, let's just get this done so I can go see Amanda in the hospital."

"Good," Joe said. "Now, Mr. Stetson..."

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Dotty stared at the ICU doctor with utter shock on her face, "How dare you! How could you make a decision like that without consulting her family? I'm her mother. I should have been informed of this, should have had a chance to have a say in this decision! Her husband should have had a say in this! Do you know what's been happening to that poor man? He's being accused by the police of putting her here, of hurting her!"

"I'm well aware of what's been happening," the doctor replied, "But I'm afraid that's not my problem. My job is to do what is best for my patient and what has been best for her is to keep her brain healthy. Would you prefer to have her end up with permanent brain damage, become a vegetable?'

"Is it that serious?"Dotty said worriedly.

"Yes, it's that serious. Now, I'm sorry that you weren't informed of what we were doing for her. I assumed that the ER doctor had told that that was why she was being moved up here," he explained apologetically.

"No, he...he just said that they wasn't much they could do for her," Dotty answered.

"And in the ER, there wasn't. That's why I took over her care."

"Well, I know that you're trying to help her, but I can't allow this to continue," Dotty said firmly. "You are _not_ to keep doing this to her. Do you understand me?"

"I'm sorry, Mrs. West, but this is medically necessary," he replied.

"Well, it stops now! I demand that you stop turning her into a zombie! I am her mother and I won't allow you to do this to her anymore."

"Yes, but you're not her next of kin. You made sure that we knew that when you insisted on allowing her husband in to see her," the doctor reminded her. "Now, is he here to make that decision?"

"No, he's not and part of that is your fault! If my daughter had been allowed to stay conscious, she could have already refuted these ridiculous charges against him and he could be here with her now instead of running around like a crazy person trying to prove his innocence!"

"Mother, stop," Amanda said weakly from her bed.

Dotty rushed to her daughter's side, reaching for her hand and gushed, "Oh, my darling girl, you're awake," while the doctor approached her from the other side.

Amanda struggled to sit up, but the doctor kept her from rising with a hand on her shoulder, "Easy there. You shouldn't try to move. You've got a nasty concussion there."

"Lee, he needs me," Amanda protested as the events of the other night flooded through her mind and Lee's attempt to rescue her. "He's in trouble."

"Yes, he is," Dotty said, "But Joe's helping him."

"Joe?" Amanda questioned in confusion as she tried to clear her fogged mind. "No, Joe can't be involved in this. He'd...get hurt. Lee...serious danger. Three men...jumped me...they're going to hurt him if he doesn't get some backup."

"Amanda, Darling, Lee is just fine. He's in some legal trouble, but he's not in any danger."

"Legal trouble?" She looked at her mother in bewilderment. "No...last night...Men...attacked...Lee...tried...help me."

"Amanda that wasn't last night. that was two nights ago. You've been here unconscious for more than a day," Dotty explained to her daughter, but with a pointed glare at the doctor. Their conversation was interrupted by a pair of orderlies arriving to take Amanda to radiology for her CAT scan. Dotty released her hand and said to her, "They need to take to you to run some more tests, but don't you worry, my darling girl, I'll be right here when you get back, okay?"

Two hours later, Lee arrived, having been dropped off by Joe, since he'd left the "vette with Leatherneck to get his windshield worked on, to find Dotty slumped in a chair in the ICU waiting room, dozing. He gently nudged her, "Dotty," he whispered.

Dotty bolted upright and said, "Amanda!'

"No, Dotty, it's me, Lee," he answered as he knelt in front of her. He then looked at her with a pained expression on her face. "So, I take it there's no change in her condition."

Dotty sighed as her fury rose again, "No, that's just it, Lee. Her condition is..." she took a deep breath as she tried to calm herself enough to explain to Lee what she'd found out.

As Dotty's words sank in, Lee shouted, "What?!" then marched to the reception desk and demanded, "Let me back there now!"

"Sir, If you could just calm down," the receptionist said.

"Don't tell me to calm down! Not when I just found out that my wife's been being doped to the gills to keep her knocked out! I wanna' talk to her doctor right the hell now! You either let me back there or I'll find my own way even if I have to break the goddamn door down! You got me?"

"Y-Y-yes, Sir," she stammered as she reached for the phone.

As soon as Lee was led through the doors to the ICU, he marched toward the nurse's station and demanded, "Where the hell is he? That damned doctor who's been screwing with my wife's brain?"

"Mr. Stetson, I'm going to have to ask you to calm down. The doctor's in with her now reviewing the results of her last CAT scan," the nurse explained.

"Fine, then I'm going in there," Lee said as he turned only to be stopped by an orderly stepping in front of him. "You gonna' get outta' my way or do I have to make you move?" just as the nurse rushed from behind the desk

"Sir, please, calm down. I understand that you're upset, but we have other patients' families here. I can't have you disturbing them or I'll have to call security."

"No, I will not calm down!" Lee shouted. "Not when I've just been told that he's been basically keeping her a vegetable since she's been in here! What right did he have to do that without my permission? This is my wife we're talking about here! Now, you get that damned doctor's ass out her and do it now!"

In Amada's room, she heard the distinct sound of her husband's angry voice and called weakly, "Lee," just before slipping into unconsciousness again, her doctor disposing of a syringe as he walked toward the door.

"What's going on out here," the doctor said having heard the shouting.

"You!' Lee said pointing an accusing finger at the doctor. "You're the one that's been doing God knows what to my wife."

"I've been doing what I deemed medically necessary to help your wife's recovery," the other man replied.

"Well, you can just stop it right the hell now," Lee demanded. "I won't have you treating her like she's just some lab rat or human pincushion."

"I'm afraid you're about fifteen minutes too late. I just gave her another IV injection to put her out again. Her last scan didn't look good," he explained. "She needs to heal."

"You rotten son of a bitch!" Lee yelled. "Her mother already told you she didn't want you putting her down like she's some damn dog anymore. Why the hell would you do that against her family's wishes?"

"Mr. Stetson, I understand your concern, but I can't in good conscience, stop treatment of her without her next of kin and that's you. If you'd been here to make that decision, I wouldn't have done it. Now, for the good of the other patients here, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to calm down or leave the ICU until you do."

"The hell I will. You had no right to do what you did, NONE!" Not without-" his words were cut off by his arms being pinned behind his back and for the second time in less than forty-eight hours, he was being handcuffed and dragged away from his wife. "Amanda!' He shouted as two uniformed police offers forcibly yanked him out of the ICU.


	27. Chapter 27

In the ICU waiting room, Dotty leapt to her feet as she saw her son-in-law being forcibly dragged through the room to the exit.

"Let me go, you sons of bitches!"Lee shouted. "I need to be with my wife!"

"What are you doing? Where are you taking him?" Dotty exclaimed as she stepped in front of the police officers.

"Get out of the way, Lady," one of the cops said as they attempted to push past her, but she stepped in front of the door blocking their path.

"No," she said firmly as she folded her arms across her chest and glanced at the cuffs on Lee's wrists. "What on earth are you arresting him for? He's just worried about his wife, just as I'm worried about her. You surely can't arrest him for that?"

"He's making a nuisance of himself, disturbing the peace. We're just gonna' take h im downtown until he cools off a little," the officer answered.

"Just let me talk to him. I can help," Dotty pleaded, not wanting to see him spend more time in jail when he'd already been through an ordeal.

"Move it, Lady, or we'll take you in too for obstruction," the cop replied.

"Dotty, just let it go," Lee said not wanting to see her in the same hot water he was in. As she stepped out of the way, he called back over his shoulder, just before he was shoved through the door, shouting, "Call Joe!"

As soon as they were out of the room, Dotty, her eyes flaring with anger, turned on the receptionist and said, "You! You did this, didn't you? I cannot believe your utter lack of compassion. If you had any idea what it's like to see someone you love suffering that way that my daughter is, you'd never have done something like this. I hope to God the day never comes that you have someone you love fighting for their life!" She then turned on her heel exiting the ICU in search of the nearest pay phone.

Joe King had just stepped into his house and was being questioned by his sons about when their mother was going to be home from his work trip, cringing because he had to lie to them yet again regarding Amanda's whereabouts, when his wife pulled him aside, whispering, "Phone, now," with a nod toward his private office situated off of their living room. When Joe looked at her quizzically, still in her hushed tone, she said, "You need to take it in private," with a worried glance toward Phillip and Jamie.

With a shake of his head, he walked into his office kicking the door closed behind him, sighed and picked up the phone, "Yeah...Dotty, dotty, Dotty, slow down..." as he ex-mother-in-law began babbling in a frenzied tone in his ear. "Now, what happened to Lee?" He listened in silence for a moment as she recounted the whole tale. "I'll be right there." He then exited the room, reached for the jacket he'd just removed and said to his wife and children, "Sorry, guys, I've gotta' go."

"Again?" Carrie questioned.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I'll be back as soon as I can," Joe said planting a quick kiss to his wife's lips before turning to his sons, hugging both of them. "Be good for Carrie, Fellas, okay?" When both boys nodded, he quickly exited, a man on a mission.

In a holding cell at the police station, Lee groaned at seeing the lady cop approaching him, "Great," he muttered.

"Well, well, well," Detective Bledsoe said with a sneer. "You've got yourself in a bit of trouble again, haven't you?"

"Screw you," Lee said hotly as he gripped the bars tightly. "This shit is all your fault, you know. If you'd just listened to me to begin with when I told you that Amanda was attacked by someone else, none of this would be happening."

"No, Hotshot," she fired back. "If guys like you could think with the head on your shoulders for one damn minute instead of the one in your pants, this wouldn't be happening."

"That's enough," Joe King snapped from behind her. When she whipped around to face him, he glared at her, "Please tell me that you're not harassing my client again. I know that I already had a conversation with your captain about this. Do I need to have another one?" Bledsoe glared at Joe icily, started to open her mouth, but at seeing his steely gaze never falter, she made a hasty escape. "Good," Joe said to her retreating backside as the officer with him unlocked Lee's cell. "You're outta' here." He told Lee as the officer released him, "But here's the deal, you're barred from the hospital."

"What? No," Lee said.

"You did it to yourself. I warned you to stay away, but you ignored me, just like you ignored your boss' order to stay out of Amanda's case. Now, are you ready to start listening to reason?" Joe said as they walked through the station together.

As they passed by Detective Bledsoe's desk, Lee glanced her way for a moment a look of pure hatred on his face, then turned back to Joe and said, "There's something going on with her." As they stepped outside and walked toward Joe's car, he explained about his confrontation with her of the day before and how she'd blanched at the mention of someone hurting her.

"Hmmm," Joe said thoughtfully as he unlocked his car. "You might be onto something. If she's been a victim herself, that would definitely explain her attitude, but something that doesn't make sense is why she'd still feel that way even after she learned that you two were married. Surely, she wouldn't think that you'd rape your own wife."

"I don't know," Lee said with a sigh, "But I think it's worth checking out."

"I'm afraid that's more your area than mine," Joe said. "Wouldn't your resources at the agency give you everything you need to dig into her history?"

"Yeah, but I've been suspended and ordered not to set foot in the agency until this case is closed."

"Isn't there someone else who could do your investigating for you?"

Lee thought for a moment and with a smile said, "Yes, yes, there is."

"Maybe you should work on that then while I deal with this doctor. I'm going to drop you off at the house and I suggest you stay there to keep yourself out of more trouble."

"I hear you," Lee said with a sigh, but the idea of sitting on his hands and doing nothing while so much was unsettled was utterly abhorrent to him. He had an idea to work around that though.

Twenty minutes later, after being dropped off, he was on the phone Lee began to put his plan in motion, "Listen, Duffy, I know Smyth told you and everybody else to keep your hands off this case, but this isn't for this case...Yes, it's related, but it's for an entirely different reason. Okay, how's this then, you can either do it, or I can send those pictures to your wife of you and the girl in Paris." Lee chuckled and said, "Oh, I know you were just on a job, but your wife doesn't and pictures like those...Well, I'm just thinking that your misses might not be so understanding about, unless you plan to explain to the little woman that you don't really make documentary films. Considering that you've been keeping that little secret from her for the whole ten years you've been married, you'd have a whole lot of explaining to do." He paused for a beat as he listened to the other agent's reply, and then smiled and said, "That's what I thought," and hung up the phone with a satisfied smirk.

After calling Joe, Dotty sat in the office of ICU doctor, trying to keep herself calm as she spoke to him about his course of treatment on her daughter. It was taking every ounce of strength she had not to rail at him as she'd done earlier, but she didn't want to take the risk that she'd be thrown out too, leaving Amanda with no one there to care for her when she woke up. "Doctor, I just don't quite understand. I know that you want to help my daughter, but how do you think it's helping her to keep her drugged to the gills to the point of unconsciousness?"

"Listen," he said. "You don't understand how serious this is. Your daughter is a very stubborn woman. You remember that I told you she tried to get out of bed last night and you saw yourself how she tried to do it again today, right?" When Dotty nodded, he continued. "When she did that last night, she ripped open her stitches, causing blood vessels to rupture in her brain. That kind of bleeding can lead to stroke or an aneurysm, which in turn can lead to permanent brain damage, could leave her paralyzed, or even brain-dead. I've spoken to her a few times about it when she's been conscious and she's argued with me about needing to back up her partner. Now, I've been informed of what she does for a living and because of that, I can't in good conscience allow her to be up and around at least until her head wound has had time to properly close to prevent more bleeding."

"Well, couldn't you just give her...I don't know...a painkiller or something, that would allow her to stay conscious, like they did when she was shot? the painkillers they gave her at that time made her sleepy, but they didn't knock her completely out. Then, she could still talk to us, talk to the police, and help clear her husband's name. I mean, you and I both heard her talking about the three men that jumped her and that they were going after Lee too. That kind of statement from her could clear this whole thing up."

"I understand, but what I want you to understand is that she's in no condition to be testifying to anything right now. I doubt they'd believe her anyway in the state she's in, but I will pass on what I head to the police."

"You'd better," Joe King said from the doorway as he dropped a folded document on the desk.

"What's this?" the doctor said as he unfolded it. "A subpoena?"

"You bet your sweet ass it is," Joe said heatedly. "And there's this..." he said as he dropped another document in front of him. "This is an injunction to stop the treatment you've been giving Amanda King, signed by a judge twenty minutes ago," He then produced a third document, "And this...this is a power of attorney, signed by Lee Stetson, authorizing her mother and me to take responsibility for any and all decisions about her future treatment for the duration of her recovery."

He then exited the room with a triumphant grin, matched by Dotty's as she said to the doctor, "Now, Doctor, about my daughter's treatment..."

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**Sunday afternoon, 4:00PM**

Joe and Lee sat on the couch at the house while Joe recounted to Lee what had happened at the hospital when there was a knock on the door. Lee quickly rose to answer it, admitting agent Duffy into the house, "What have you got?" Lee asked him.

"Plenty. See for yourself," Duffy replied as he handed Lee a file.

Lee quickly perused it and let out a low whistle before handing it off to Joe whose eyes widened and said, "Well, that certainly explains a lot. We've got her now."

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While Lee and Joe were formulating a plan to bring Detective Bledsoe to her knees, the receptionist at the information desk at the hospital looked up at hearing someone loudly clearing their throat. "May I help you?" she said as she glanced at the wheel-chaired man and shuddered slightly at the sight of the bigger tattooed man behind it.

"Yes," Jake Williamson replied as he held up a basket of flowers. "I'd like to know what room Amanda King has been moved to,"


	28. Chapter 28

**Sunday afternoon, 4:00PM**

Beaman and Francine stood in Billy's office both looking tired and frustrated as they recounted their fruitless day's work to their boss. "So, every lead we had has turned up nothing," Francine said with a sigh of exhaustion and disappointment. "The van belonged to the florist and they had reported it stolen last night."

"And coincidentally, McKay didn't show up for work today," Beaman added. "His parole officer hasn't heard from him either."

"That's not much of a surprise since this is a weekend," Billy said. "What else?"

Francine sighed again and said, "The address the florist had on file for him was a bust too. It doesn't look as if anyone's lived there for months and I talked to his landlady who said he's only been coming around to get his mail." She chuckled sardonically and said, "She seemed to think he's got a girlfriend or something."

"So, we're right back at square one," Beaman said as he flung himself wearily into one of the chairs in front of Billy's desk slumping against the back of it. "Tell me again why Stetson's not doing his own investigating."

"You know why, Mr. Beaman," Dr. Smyth said as he entered the room chuckling slightly when Beaman immediately straightened up. "We had this conversation already, didn't we?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Francine said with a roll of her eyes. "The agency's reputation, how would it look, yadda, yadda, yadda. Bad reputation or not, we could really use his help on this one. After all, he was right there with Amanda when Williamson got nailed the first time."

"No, Francine," Beaman argued. "What we really need is Amanda. She's the one who could clear this whole thing up and maybe could even spot something that we haven't yet."

Smyth looked at him in bemusement, "Don't tell me your opinion of the happy homemaker's skills has changed. I seem to recall not too long ago, you raising quite the stink about having her as your studious pupil"

"Look, I never disliked having her in my classes," Beaman argued. "The only issue that I have is Stetson's influence. She's worked with him so long that she just jumps in and does things without being told to and often oversteps the bounds of a typical freshman and that makes me look bad with her classmates."

"I think we'll all agree here that Amanda is not exactly your typical freshman," Francine argued.

"Enough, People," Billy said putting a halt to the argument before it could escalate.

"Indeed," Smyth agreed. "Beaman, I don't give a damn about your bruised ego here. What I do give a damn about is getting the job done. Mrs. King has been a considerable asset to us, as you well know. This Williamson is living proof of that." He then turned his attention back to Billy and said, "How are we doing here on putting the wild tiger back in his cage?"

"I'm afraid we're out of leads," Billy said sadly.

"Look, since we're out of leads," Francine said, "Would you mind if I knocked off for the day. I'd like to pay a visit to Amanda in the hospital."

Billy nodded and said, "Yeah, go on. There's not much more we can do until we come up with something else."

"I think I'll go with you," Beaman said as he rose from his seat. When the other three looked at him in surprise, he replied, "Look, she may get on my nerves, but she's still a damn good agent and I never wanted to see anything like this happen to her." Without giving anyone else a chance to reply, he exited the room, Francine following behind him.

"You...uh...you wanna' ride together? Maybe we can grab a bite to eat when we're done."

"Yeah," he said with a smile. As they walked out of the bullpen together, he said, "So...uh...you know, they've been married all this time and...Uh...they still manage to work together. So, I was thinking, that maybe you...and...And...Me..."

"Beaman, stop right there. I don't want to hear the end of any sentence that begins with "you and me" Francine said as they entered the elevator together.

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After Duffy had left, Lee said to Joe, "So, you're gonna' use this against her in court, right?"

"Damn right I am," Joe replied, feeling for the first time, even after he'd been tirelessly exercising all his legal skills, that they might actually have a shot at winning.

"Good," Lee said with a nod. "Look, I probably shouldn't ask, but could you do me one more favor?"

"What is it?" Joe said looking up from the file in concern, not liking the tone in Lee's voice.

"I...um...I really need to see Amanda. I know I behaved badly and it doesn't surprise me that they threw me out, but I..." his voice became choked as he tried to put his thoughts into words. "Isn't there anything that you can do with all your fancy lawyer tricks?"

Joe sighed, thinking it was a bad idea, but he knew Lee wouldn't give up. He knew that if he were in the same position, he'd want to be by Amanda's side as well. "Come on, let's go. I'll see what I can do."

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Jake Williamson he held up a basket of flowers. "I'd like to know what room Amanda King has been moved to."

"Amanda King, you said? Let me just check for you," the receptionist said sweetly as she typed in a few keystrokes on the computer in front of her, a brief moment of panic crossing her features at what she saw. She quickly tried to cover smiled at the two men and said, "I'm sorry, Sir, but we don't have a patient by that name."

"Are you sure?" Williamson said. "I'm sure she's here. I just visited her in the ER the other night and I know she's not at home yet. She was too injured to be released."

"I'm sorry, Sir, no one here by that name," she said with more confidence than she felt. "Perhaps she's been transferred to another hospital?"

"I doubt that," Williamson said. "I don't think the doctors caring for her would want to take a chance of injuring her further by moving her to another location. Head injury, you know."

"Maybe she's been moved to Parker General then. They've got some of the best neurosurgeons in the area."

"You know what I think?" McKay said as he tightened his grip on Williamson's chair and fixed her with a menacing look. "I think you're lying."

"Easy, Mack," Williamson said then turned his attention back to the nurse and said, "We really just want to pay our respects to Mrs. King. We're old friends of hers and we heard about what happened to her on the news."

"Oh, really?" the receptionist said as she surreptitiously pushed the silent alarm button under her desk to alert security. She looked at McKay then back at Williamson and said. "Now, who's lying? I know for a fact that Mrs. King's attack was never publicized. It wasn't on the news or in the paper and the entire staff here was told not to say a word to anyone."

"So, she _is _here?" McKay said triumphantly as he rounded the corner of her desk.

"N-n-no," she stammered as she backed away from him. "I...Um...I just meant when she _was_ here,"

"I still say you're a liar," McKay said as he pushed her out of the way to peer at her computer screen.

"Back off, McKay," Effrom Beaman said as he reached for his weapon while Francine trained hers on Williamson. He and Francine had just entered the hospital through the main doors and had spotted their perps instantly. Without warning, McKay leapt over the desk at Beaman, knocking him to the ground, his gun skidding across the linoleum.

Francine was torn between taking the time to cuff Williamson and backing up Beaman. She didn't want to let Williamson get away because she knew Lee would never forgive her, but she also didn't want Beaman getting hurt either. It only took her a couple of seconds to realize that McKay, being more mobile was the bigger threat. "Give it up, McKay!" she said in a warning tone as she turned her gun on him.

McKay reacted by quickly rising to his feet pulling Beaman with him, his meaty arm locked around the agent's throat. "You gonna' take the risk of taking your buddy with me, Lady?"

Francine hesitated for only a second, but it was enough for Williamson to rush her with his wheelchair, knocking her off-balance, her gun also going flying. She scrambled for it as McKay quickly backed away still using Beaman as a shield, but was stopped by two hospital security guards behind him.

"Let him go," one of the guards shouted. McKay whipped around and with all the force that he could muster shoved Beaman their direction, causing them both to topple to the floor.

Beaman righted himself quickly, picking up his fallen gun and aimed it at McKay just as Francine was doing the same from the other side, but before either could make a move a shot rang out and they watched as McKay slumped to the ground. The both turned to the sound of the shot to see Lee standing there, a look of pure fury etched on his features, wisps of smoke emanating from the barrel of his Beretta. He resolutely marched to McKay's fallen body, jammed his foot against the profusely bleeding wound he'd just put in the other man's shoulder and said, "That's for my wife, you bastard!" He took aim again, but was stopped by Joe's hand on his arm.

"No, Lee," Joe said. "You can't prove that he attacked Amanda if he's dead.

Lee nodded and said to the receptionist, "He's gonna' need medical attention," and the turned to where Francine was cuffing Williamson's hands to his chair. "You...I haven't even begun with you yet."

"Are you really going to shoot an unarmed man in a wheelchair," Williamson said.

"No, I'm not," Lee said as he holstered his weapon. Williamson breathed a sigh of relief, which was short-lived as he felt Lee's fist connecting solidly with his jaw. "But I will do that," he added with a satisfied smile at look on Williamson's face. He then turned his attention to Francine and said, "Get this piece of trash out of here." He turned once more to face Joe and said, "I wanna' see my wife."


	29. Chapter 29

**Monday Morning, 2:00AM**

Lee sat wearily by his wife's bedside as he had been for hours ever since Joe King had made a big stink about threatening legal action on his behalf if they wouldn't allow Lee to see his wife. The doctor who'd been treating her already having been served with a subpoena and an injunction to stop his treatment of her conceded, but with the understanding that if Lee made another scene that could potentially disturb the other patients, he would have to leave again. Lee had just silently acquiesced with a nod, not wanting to be barred from being with Amanda again.

Dotty had been with him for a while, each of them holding one of her hands talking quietly again about how to handle dealing with their marriage when it came to Phillip and Jamie, Joe agreeing with Dotty that it was better to just have a second wedding rather that to reveal their deception. When Lee had fired back that he was tired of the lies, Joe countered that when it came to getting the boys to trust again, he was the expert, reminding hm of all the years that he'd been away and how hard it had been for him to regain their trust when he was their actual father. Lee had to admit that he had a point, if it took them time to trust their own father again, what chance did he have? They had all lapsed into silence until Joe had suggested that Dotty go home and get some rest. She had balked at first, but then when both men insisted, she finally conceded and allowed Joe to drive her home.

Lee now sat alone with his wife, never taking his eyes off of her, watching her carefully for any sign that she was coming out of it. "Come on, Amanda, fight this," Lee whispered to her as he gripped her hand tightly in his willing her to open her eyes. "I love you so much. This is killing me seeing you like this. You need to fight. The boys need you, your mom needs you...and I need you." When he was answered by silence, he kept going, ""Manda, come on, how are we ever going to have that normal life we want if you won't wake up? You should be happy. After years of me fighting you, you've finally got me wanting to be a normal person, complete with softball games in the back yard, two cats, and a front porch swing." When he felt a slight tug on his hand, his heart leapt.

"Horses," Amanda whispered but didn't open her eyes.

"Yeah, horses too," Lee said with a smile as he gently caressed her face with his free hand. "Can't forget the horses, can we?" He leaned in and lightly brushed his lips against hers, but found disappointment flooding through him when there was no response. He sighed and said, "Amanda?" No response.

"Don't get discouraged, Lee," Dotty's voice said softly from behind him. When he turned toward her, she stepped further into the room and continued, "Her new doctor in charge of her care said that she may drift in and out of consciousness and that it could be several hours before she's coherent enough to really talk to us."

"Yeah, I know," Lee said with another sigh, "But I...I guess I just got my hopes up."

"I know, but what you should really get is some sleep," Dotty said in a mothering tone as she brushed his rumpled hair out of his face.

"I'm not leaving her side," Lee said with a firm shake of his head.

"You need to. Joe called about ten last night and said that he managed to do some fancy legal maneuvering and got your preliminary hearing moved to eleven, something about a plea bargain with another case that led to an earlier opening. He also said that if this hearing goes well, there may never be a formal arraignment."

"Good, good," Lee said beginning to feel as if an enormous weight had been lifted.

"But that means that you need to get some sleep. That's only nine hours away." When he gave her a look, she said, "And don't give me that stubborn look. I'm a mother, I can out-stubborn you any day of the week. After all, I raised Amanda, didn't I?" She nodded to her sleeping daughter.

Lee couldn't help laughing at that and said, "All right, you win." He kissed his wife once more and rose to his feet wincing as he tried to stretch out his stiff muscles.

"Now, there's a cab waiting for you downstairs," Dotty said "Go on."

"Thanks, Dotty," Lee said brushing a light kiss to his mother-in-law's cheek, "For everything."

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**Monday 11:30AM**

Joe sat at the defense table watching in silent amusement as Detective Bledsoe recounted her investigation into Amanda's attack, ADA Gardner asking all the right questions to spin the facts in her direction as he mentally prepared for his counter-attack.

"So," Gardner said, "You said that Mr. Stetson himself admitted to you that he had rough sex with the victim?"

"Yes, he certainly did," Bledsoe said with an icy glare Lee's direction, "He insisted that it was consensual, but his next-door neighbor heard her screaming from inside his apartment, then heard them yelling at each other in the hallway, followed by her screaming again outside the building. Then there's the forensic evidence that was taken from him and her that indicates this was not just rough sex, but a violent rape."

"And wasn't he found by your officers, kneeling over her unconscious body?"

"Yes, he was," Bledsoe answered confidently.

"Was there anyone else on the scene?"

"No," Bledsoe replied. "He was the only one there."

"Thank you, Detective Bledsoe," ADA Gardner replied as she returned to her seat.

The judge nodded to Joe, who picked up the agency file from the table in front of him, strolled toward the witness stand nonchalantly and said, "Detective Bledsoe, you testified that her neighbor, Mr. Winn, told you that he heard Mrs. King screaming from both the inside of the apartment and outside the building, which is part of what led to your conclusion that Mr. Stetson had raped her. Is that correct?"

"Yes," she answered.

"Did you ask Mr. Winn if anything like this had ever happened before?"

"No," Bledsoe replied.

"So, you never bothered to find out if Mrs. King had been a regular houseguest of Mr. Stetson's"

She glared at him and said, "No."

"Interesting, because when I spoke to Mr. Winn and his other next-door neighbor, Miss Harding, they both indicated that they'd seen her coming and going many times, that she'd spent many full weekends there. Mr. Winn even went as far as to say that he'd heard the sounds of them having sex before, indicating that she was more than willing. Why was this piece of information not uncovered in your investigation?"

"I was trying to find out what happened the night the crime was committed. A prior history with the victim has no bearing on the crime at hand."

"Oh, but it does. You were also told when questioning Mr. Stetson, that Amanda King is not just a regular houseguest, but is his wife, yet you were still convinced that he raped her. Why is that?"

"The evidence suggests-"

"Yes, but there is also evidence that suggests otherwise, isn't there?" Joe said cutting her off. "Just as there is evidence to suggest that you have your own reasons to pursuing Mr. Stetson." He flipped open the folder in his hands and continued, "You were once married, weren't you?"

"Yes, but I don't see what that has to do with anything," Bledsoe replied with a slight shudder.

"I believe it has _everything_ to do with your relentless vendetta against my client. Not only were you married before you joined the police academy, but you were married to a very violent man." He handed her the file. "There are numerous reports of domestic violence here. You once even accused your ex-husband of raping you. Isn't that right?"

"Y-Y-Yes," Bledsoe stammered.

"Yet no charges were ever filed against him for it, were there?"

At seeing where Joe's line of questioning was going, ADA Gardner rose and said, "Your honor, I object to this whole line of questioning. Detective Bledsoe is a highly decorated police detective with years of experience and numerous commendations."

"Who is also currently the subject of an internal affairs investigation for her mishandling of this case to the point that she was removed from it."

"Your honor," Gardner said with a pleading look at the judge.

The judge shook his head and said, "Go on, Mr. King."

"Detective Bledsoe?" Joe said. "Can you explain to use what happened when you accused your husband of rape?"

"The...um...the police refused to do anything about it. They s-s-said that a man can't rape his wife, that a man had a right to-" she broke off as bitter tears filled her eyes.

"That's what led you to want to join the police force, isn't it? That's what has you bound and determined to track down any man who even appears as if he might have hurt a woman and why you've ignored every bit of evidence in the case against my client that might suggest his innocence, isn't it?"

"Just because she's his wife, that doesn't mean that he didn't do it," she fired back hotly as she blinked back the tears. "I speak from experience."

Joe smiled and said, "Thank you, Detective Bledsoe. No more questions."

The hearing continued with testimony from Lee's neighbors, Detective Tuggy, as well as Francine and Billy who were forced to testify that while they had two men in custody that they believed were responsible for Amanda's attack, they had no proof of that other than Lee's word. The ADA tore into both of them with her examination of them, reminding the court that he'd been lying about his marriage to Amanda for months and that he was intoxicated at the time of the attack, so he wasn't exactly a credible witness, especially given the fact that he was the accused and those accused of a crime were prone to point the finger at someone else to divert suspicion away from themselves.

Joe had kept casting wary glances at the judge in an attempt to gauge his reactions. He began to worry when the doctor testified as to Lee's state agitation at the hospital yesterday and that while he'd heard Amanda muttering about three men, he didn't know how much her ramblings could be believed because of her head injury and the anesthetics that she'd been given. In his cross-examination of the doctor, he'd bluntly reminded him that he'd given Amanda those drugs without her family's knowledge or permission and that he'd had to resort to taking legal measures to put a stop to it. Now, after all the evidence had been presented by the ADA, and after a short, too short in his opinion, recess to give the judge time to assess the evidence, he sat apprehensively next to Lee as the judge settles himself behind the bench again.

"In reviewing all of the testimony and all of the evidence presented, I've determined that there is sufficient evidence to proceed to trial," the judge declared.

Lee let out a loud groan and buried his face in his hands while Joe just sank back in his chair looking completely deflated, ADA Gardner looking gleeful at the news. The atmosphere in the courtroom shifted drastically, however, when a new voice said from the back of the room, "I'd like to ask you to reconsider." All heads turned to the sound of the raspy voice to see Amanda being pushed up the aisle in a wheelchair by her mother.


	30. Chapter 30

All heads turned to the sound of the raspy voice to see Amanda being pushed up the aisle in a wheelchair by her mother. The courtroom erupted in a flurry of chatter, the ADA consulting with the ICU doctor, while Lee leapt out of his chair and meeting his wife halfway, "Amanda," he said excitedly as he reached her, kneeling in front of her and kissing her soundly amid the sounds of the chatter and the judge banging his gavel calling for order.

"Order in the court," the judge shouted. "Mr. Stetson, please return to your seat."

Lee nodded, kissed his wife once more and strolled back to his seat as Dotty wheeled her daughter toward the front of the room. Amanda glanced at Lee, smiled at him and said, "Your honor, there's been a big misunderstanding here. A misunderstanding that I can clear up if you'll allow me to."

ADA Gardner rose and said, "Your honor, I've just spoken with her doctor who says that Mrs King is in no condition to offer any kind of coherent testimony, so I ask that you not allow this until she's had enough time to recover from the vicious attack on her." She then cast a glare at Lee. "You already heard testimony from him as well about Mr. Stetson's violent display toward him at the hospital for treating his wife."

Joe also rose from his seat and countered with, "Your honor, Amanda King is the victim in this case and she should be given the opportunity to explain to the court exactly what happened to her and my client being accused of the "vicious attack" on her," he glared at the ADA, "had a right to have testimony presented in his defense. Not only that, but Mrs. King has been removed from this doctor's care due to his questionable treatment of her, which was the reason behind Mr. Stetson's behavior at the hospital."

The judge nodded toward the bailiff and said, "Would you please help Mrs. King to the witness stand?"

The bailiff obeyed, taking over from Dotty, wheeling Amanda toward the witness stand and helping her from her wheelchair, steadying her when she faltered upon standing while Dotty slid into a seat directly behind Lee, patting him on the shoulder lightly as she did so. He turned for just a moment to smile at her, giving her a nod of gratitude before turning his attention back to Amanda, a glimmer of worry crossing his features at seeing how she was struggling to get to the witness stand, wishing he could be up there to help her.

At seeing Amanda's stumbling, ADA Gardner, "You Honor, I have to protest this again. Look at her. She can barely stand. How can she possibly be a credible witness?"

The judge turned to Amanda just as she took her seat on the witness stand and asked, "Do you feel well enough for this?"

"I'm fine. It's just that my head still hurts so I'm on some painkillers that make me a little dizzy to stand, but I'm perfectly coherent," Amanda answered.

"Proceed," the judge said.

The bailiff went through the process of swearing her in asking her to state her full name for the record, to which she replied, "Amanda Jean King," at which the ADA again leapt to her feet.

"You see, Your Honor? She doesn't even know her name. The defense has presented evidence that Mr. Stetson couldn't possibly have raped her because he's her husband, yet-"

"I know my name perfectly well," Amanda retorted, cutting her off. "My name is King because Lee and I were keeping our marriage quiet. We wouldn't very well have been able to do that if I'd legally changed my name to Stetson, now would we?"

Lee smiled and thought, _there's that logical mind that I love. _

The judge nodded to Joe who approached Amanda, "Now, Mrs. King, can you tell us what happened the night that you were attacked?"

"Yes," Amanda answered. "Lee and I had been working at an embassy reception, it was kind of late and we'd had a few drinks..." she went on to explain about their frenzied lovemaking in his apartment, the argument they'd had and the three men who'd jumped her.

"So, you're saying that you were not coerced or in any way forced to have sex with Mr. Stetson?" Joe asked.

"No, I certainly was not," Amanda answered firmly. "If anything, _I _coerced _him_."

"And was any one of those three men who attacked you outside the building your husband?"

"No, two of them I recognized because Lee and I were responsible for arresting them a year ago and the third one was a man I'd never seen before," Amanda answered then giving a detailed description of Ian McKay.

Joe then turned to the judge and said, "In light of this new testimony from the victim's own mouth and her description of her attackers' perfectly matching that of her husband's, I'd like to request that the charges against my client be dropped."

"So ordered," the judge said with a bang of his gavel while Lee leapt to his feet with a loud whoop, Dotty cheering and hugging him from behind. Lee quickly approached the witness stand to help his wife back into her wheelchair, planting another kiss to her lips once she was settled again.

"God, Amanda, I was so worried," he said as he knelt in front of her and softly caressed her face. "You shouldn't be out of the hospital."

Amanda leaned her head against his and said, "I know, but Mother told me everything. That's why I had to be here. I had to set the record straight."

"I'm glad you did, but you need to recover," Lee argued.

"And I will. I'm going to be fine," she assured him. As he wheeled her toward the exit, they were met by Dotty and Joe. "Joe, thank you for taking care of him for me."

"My pleasure," Joe said with a smile. "You just make sure to let him take care of you now."

"I will," Amanda said glancing up at her husband behind her with a smile.

Just as they reached the door, Detective Bledsoe stepped in front of them, glaring at Amanda and said, "How could you? How could you let him get away with it?"

"Listen; there was nothing for him to get away with because he didn't do anything wrong. Everything that he did to me was _exactly_ what I wanted him to do and the rest of it, he wasn't even involved with. Now if you don't mind, my head's starting to hurt again so I really should get some rest."

"So, you're perfectly okay with your husband, a man who's supposed to love you, just treating you like you're a piece of meat," Bledsoe said incredulously.

"I feel very sorry for you, Detective," Amanda said sympathetically. "I don't know what's happened to you, but it's obvious to me that you've never had a good experience with love or a fulfilling sex life. You don't know me, or my husband, so don't judge my marriage based on your own experiences."

"Do you mind moving out of the way?"Lee said. "My wife needs to rest so she can recover from her injuries."

When she still stood blocking their path, Joe stepped up and said, "The charges against my client have been dropped as you just heard and if you persist in harassing him or his wife, I'll be forced to file charges against you."

"Fine!' she said and stepped out of the way, narrowing her eyes at all of them.

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**Monday, 4:00PM**

Lee entered Amanda's hospital room, a large vase of roses in his hand, "Hi," he said with a smile at seeing her sitting up with a magazine. Upon returning to the hospital, she'd been re-admitted to the neurology ward where they could closely monitor her head injury, but it was decided after multiple tests that it was no longer necessary to keep her in the ICU.

"Hi," Amanda said with a bright smile. "Those are very pretty. Thank you."

"Not as pretty as you," Lee said as he set down the vase, and then sat on the edge of her bed.

"Oh, yeah, I'm sure I look great with the bruises on my arms and the bandage on my head," she said dryly.

Lee shook his head and said, "You look beautiful." Just the fact that she was awake and alert and was going to make a full recovery was beautiful to him.

"So, what have you been up to while I was being a human pincushion in here?"

"Just wrapping things up," Lee said. "Billy reinstated me, Detective Tuggy reported that they were finally able to sort out all the prints on your car and one set of them belonged to Ian McKay. You should have seen Francine confronting him with it. He's singing like a canary now that he can no longer deny that he attacked you and he's turned the tables on Williamson. They're both going to be in prison for a long time."

"Good," Amanda said with a smile. She chewed on her lower lip thoughtfully for a moment.

"I know that look," Lee said. "Something on your mind?"

"Well, I was just thinking about Detective Bledsoe, you know, wondering what happened to her to make her the way she is. Seeing the look on her face in the courtroom today just made me feel, I don't know, a little sad for her."

"Well, that's being taken care of too," Lee said and explained to her Duffy's discovery of Bledsoe's past.

"How awful for her," Amanda said sadly. "No wonder she didn't believe you when you told her that you didn't force yourself on me."

"Don't tell me you feel bad for her," Lee said.

"I do. That must have been a horrifying experience for her and to make it worse when she reached out for help, no one was there for her. I can't imagine what that was like for her. I hope she's able to get some professional help for it so she can finally get over it."

Lee shook his head in amazement. It never stopped surprising him how much she cared for people and how forgiving she could be. "She will," Lee said. "In fact, she's been ordered to get help now that her superiors know what's what. She's been put on mandatory medical leave until she's completed required counseling sessions to deal with her trauma. In the meantime, her internal affairs department is taking a good hard look at all the cases she's closed to make sure there's not some innocent guy out there in prison because of her behavior."

"Well, that's good that she'll be getting the help she needs. I hope it works out for her."

"Yeah, me too," Lee said, "But I don't want to dwell on this anymore. Now, that our secret is out, we need to figure out how to deal with the boys."

"I know. Mother was here a little while ago and gave me an earful about keeping our secrets, but then she suggested that we just have a real wedding ceremony on our anniversary rather than telling the boys the truth."

"Yeah, she said the same thing to me," Lee said. "I don't know that I like the idea of us living apart for another four months though. That's what started this whole mess in the first place."

"Yeah, I know, but what's four months compared to the almost-four years that it took us to get married? Besides, I think it would go a long way to Mother forgiving us for lying to her if we let her plan a wedding for us."

Lee chuckled and said, "You might be right there and I can't argue with both of you."

"So, you'll do it?" Amanda said hopefully.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll do it," Lee said. "Anything to make you happy."

"Good," She said as she gestured for him to come closer. They shared a long, lingering kiss and she smiled at him as she pulled back. "You really would do anything to make me happy, wouldn't you?"

Lee smiled back and said, "Guilty as charged."


End file.
